d 







Mn~*';' 



m 




THE 



CONSTITUTION OF MAN, 

i 

( 
PHYSICALLY, MORALLY, AM SPIEITUALLY CONSIDERED : 



OR THE 



CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. 



BY 



Q,\ ^V 



B. F. HATCH, M. D. 



Yincit, qui se vincit. 

He conquers who overcomes himself. 



NEW YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 

1866. 



BLSi 

tor 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by 

BENJAMIN F. HATCH, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Ehode Island. 

Printed by the Providence Press Company. 



■ t 



PREFACE 



To advance a system of Christian Philosophy is the object of 
the present Treatise — a system more needed than any other at the 
present crisis of the world. In an age ol* literature, scientific 
research, and wickedness, the majority of minds are too much 
enlightened, and at the same time, too skeptical to receive faith 
without proof. The doubting Thomases make up a large share of 
even the Church, and require a philosophical explanation for every 
alleged phenomenon. In the philosophy of this age, God and 
Nature have become so far divorced from each other, that such an 
explanation cannot be satisfactorily given in harmony with any of 
the existing systems, and infidelity has everywhere reared its 
unsightly deformity and become boastful of its influence. As 
mushrooms spring up in the absence of the Sun, so disbelief 
flourishes in a philosophy which takes no cognizance of the Divine 
presence. Even the believing are more or less annoyed with 
doubts and feel the general pressure of the want of a deeper 
science. On the one hand, Religion without Science merges into 
unfounded creeds and becomes superstitious in belief and dogmati- 
cal in authority ; and on the other, Science without Religion 
becomes speculative in opinion and false in its conclusions. 
Neither can ever attain to any degree of perfection without the 
other. As Religion without Science has no real basis, so Science 
without Religion has no real vitality. In these pages it has been 
my aim to set forth their inseparable relation to each other. 

Most of the recent philosophical writers have arrived at their 
conclusions without any reference to the Divine forces, and have 



4 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

attributed to Nature what really belongs to God. Witnessing the 
operations of these forces through the natural elements, and with 
such uniformity as to preclude all idea of a separate existence, they 
have arrived at the irrational conclusion that force is an innate 
property of Matter, overlooking the important fact that Matter 
per se, in whatever form it may exist, is the principle of inertia, 
and is only acted upon by Spirit, as the body by the soul. So long 
as they thus judge from appearances rather than truths, the mind 
will necessarily tend to infidelity, thus leaving religion to become 
the mere ghost of the imagination, having no fixed basis in Philoso- 
phy, hence no stability of form or consistency of belief. 

The aim of the following pages is to show the relation between 
the two — that they are correlative and inseparable principles; 
and that no trrie system of Philosophy can ever exist without 
Religion, or Religion ever become practical without Philosophy. 
I have sought to show the relation between the Spiritual and 
the Natural on each plane and in every department of existence. 
Much of the ground gone over in this vast field of investigation 
has never, to my knowledge, been explored by any previous writer, 
and I have been obliged to hunt my way through an immense 
wilderness of philosophy, guided alone by the polar star of Biblical 
truths, not as they exist in the popular theology of the age, but as 
they were revealed to me by the Holy Spirit through daily prayer 
and supplication for more light. 

The work, such as it is, is now given to the public ; and the 
Author feels the fullest assurance that notwithstanding its many 
imperfections and that it falls far short of what he could wish it to 
be, and hopes hereafter to make it, it contains many vital truths 
which will be of vast importance to both Science and Religion. 

B. F. HATCH, M. D. 

Providence, R. I., 1866. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

JEHOVAH GOD* 

The Duality of All Things. —A Universal Belief in the Existence of a 
God. — The Trinity. — - The Chasm between the Divine and Fallen 
Humanity. — The Chinese Five Sacred Books. — God Begot His own 
Humanity, — Christ the Way, the Truth and the Life. « — The Belation 
of Soul and Body. — • Christ's Crucifixion. —His Victory —The Dis- 
may of the Hells. — The Ordinance of the Divine Humanity. — The 
Holy Spirit ; its Relation to the Gospel Dispensation. — The Analogy 
between the Trinity and the Constitution of Man. — - The Descent of the 
Hojy Spirit at the Time of the Lord's Baptism. — Its Office in Perfecting 
the Human. — The Disciples Received the Holy Spirit Subsequent to the 
Lord's Resurrection. — The Difference between the Spirit of the Jehovah 
of the Old Testament and the Holy Spirit of the New. — r The Divine 
Humanity the Medium of Man's Connection with the Supreme 
Divinity. — Solomon's Temple Typical of Man. — The Word of the 
Lord. —The Catholic Church Withheld the Bible. —The Art of Writing 
and Printing Provided by the Lord. — * Christian Belief Depends upon a 
Fidelity to God. - — Swedenborg quoted. — - The Divinity of the Word. — 
He that Doubteth is Damned. — A Difference between Faith and Belief. 
— The Word is a Covenant between God and Man. — The Binding 
Effects of Sin. — The Conjugal Principle. — ■ The Sin of our First 
Parents. — The Consequence of Self-Pollution. — The Fundamental 
Basis of Marriage. — The Evil of Adultery 29-68, 

CHAPTER II. 

SPIRIT AND MATTER. 

Hitherto Inexplicable. — The Diversity of Opinions. — The Reduction of 
Matter into 64 Primitive Elements. — The Reduction of Matter into 2 



6 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Primitive Elements. — The Disagreement of Opinions in Regard to 
Electricity. — Tests of the Infinite Divisibility of Matter. —Dr. J. R. 
Mayer quoted. — Matter Considered as the Plane of Use, — Matter 
Divided into Solid Liquids, and Aeriforms. — Sir Humphrey Davy 
quoted.— The Personality of God. — Spirit the Begetting and Matter the 
Fruit-Bearing Principle. — The Three Discrete Degrees in Man. — The 
Development Theory Considered. — The Development of Cells. — The 
Secretion of the Spermatic Fluid. — Instinct, Soul and Body. — Discrete 
Degrees of the Blood. — Matter the Plane of Use. — The Sexual Con- 
dition of Planets. — The Co-opposite Relation of Spirit and Matter. — 
All Things have their Birth from God. — Macrocosm and Microcosm. — 
The Conjugal Sphere .. 69-99. 



CHAPTER III. 

LAWS OF CONNECTION. 

The Commerce of Human Spheres. — Croesus and Solon. — Catholicism. 

— The Charter of Toleration, — Constantine. — Licinius. — The Union 
of Church and State. — The Miracles Claimed by the Roman Church, — 
The Motive Governs the Character of the Act. — The Highest Principle, 
when Mis-directed, becomes the Most Potent for Evil. — The Relation of 
the Romish Church and the Beast. — The Edict of Milan. — Impiety of 
the Romish Church. — George Fox, — Jesus Christ. — Dr.. H. Bush- 
nell. — John Calvin. — James Arminius. — Arminians are Negative to 
the Calvinists. — The Puritans. — John Brown and the War of 1861-5. 

— The Calvinists' Opposition to the Arminians. — The Cause of the 
Uncertainty of Litigations. — The Magnetic Principle. — Mediums. — 
Diseases ; their Transference. — The Influence of Public Speakers. 

100-132. 

CHAPTER IV. 

SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 

Sin Defined. — Its Relation to God and Man. — The Two Tables of Stone, 
their Relation to Each Other and Representative Character. — A Cove- 
nant is a Consociation between Parties. — The Reason for Breaking the 
First Two Tables. — Humanity is the Ultimate Plane of the Divine 
Operations. — The Positive and Negative Relation of All Entities. — 
Ark of the Covenant. — Its Power and Influence. — The Cause of its 
Slaying Uzzah, and its Destruction of the Philistines. — Moses' Face Shone 
with the Same Divine Potency. — The Saving Principle of the Righteous. 

— The Potency of Human Magnetism when Exerted for the Cure of 
Disease. — Dynamicand Static Conditions Correspond to Positive and Neg- 



CONTENTS. 7 

ative Action. — Magnetism and Electricity. — The Necessity of the Hu- 
manity of the Lord in Order to Regain the Lost Equilibrium between the Cre- 
ator and His Creation. — The Phenomena Attending the Crucifixion of 
the Lord. — Connate Forces. — Pentecost, its Cause and Influence. — 
The Influence of the Divine Humanity upon the Material Elements. — 
Man's Sins Exclude him from the Divine Presence and Close his Inte- 
rior Perceptions. — The Bible, its Fullness and Power. — Its Influence 
in Heaven. — The Relation of Moral and Physical Disorders. — The 
Effects of Sin upon the Human Constitution. — T. Dick quoted. — 
Christianity the Only Principle of Order. — The Consequences of Re- 
jecting the Bible. — The Infidelity of France, —The French Revolution 
and its Awful Horrors. — Lebon, his Villainy and Debauchery. — Jean 
B. Carrier, his Fiendish Cruelty. — Massacre of Children 133-173. 



CHAPTER V. 

CHARITY; ITS NATURE AND OFFICE. 

Charity Defined. — It Does Not Consist in Indiscriminate Giving to the 
Poor or in Sympathy for the Vicious. — The Lack of Moral Tone in the 
Public Discrimination. — Scripture Instructions in Reference to True 
Charity. — The Requirements of the Present Age. — It is no breach of 
Christian Charity to Withhold from the Unworthy ; Aaron Burr, his 
Seductive Power. — Charity and Justice, Correlative Principles. — The 
Importance of Persistent Action in the Right. — The Predictions of Peter 
Fulfilled. — Charity Spiritually Considered. — Interior and Exterior 
Will. — A Moral Life is Not Charity ; for to Refrain from Evil from Pru- 
dential Motives rather than Religious Considerations, is Not Religion, 
though the Life may be Correct and the Acts Good. — Charity is the 
Foundation of all the Christian Graces. — Treasures in Heaven. 

174-191. 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE MORAL LAW; ITS NATURE, REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 

All Things have their Laws. — Hobb's Theory. — ManderilPs. — Hume's. 
— Dr. Paley's, — Dr. Adam Smith on the Moral Sentiments. — False 
Attempts to Explain Away the Positive Side of Evil. — What the Moral 
Law Teaches. — The Contrast between the Righteous and Wicked. — 
The .Justice of God's Laws. — Every Duty is a Duty towards God as it 
His Will whi3h Makes it a Duty. — Financial Thefts, — Municipal 
Laws. — Albany Legislature. — The Ten Commandments. — The Highest 
Form of Government is Founded upon Biblical Principles. — The Effects 



THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

upon Another Life of Infringing the Moral Law. — Contest between the 
North and the South, — Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. — The Evils 
of Buying and Selling Votes. — The Inhumanity of the South. — Man 
Connects with Such Forces as Correspond to his own Condition. — 
Approaching Crisis. — Corruptness of Jurisprudential Regulations ; 
Causes of. — Judges, their Corruption and Punishment in Hell. 192-247. 



CHAPTER VII. 

MARRIAGE. 

Marriage Treated of Under Two Heads ; first, as a Principle j second, as 
an Institution, 

MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 

Jehovah — The Primeval Principles from which all Marriages Origi- 
nate. — Planets the Media of Marriage Forces. — Three Discrete De- 
grees, Divine, Spirit and Matter, r— Inertia the Condition of all Mat- 
ter in Contradistinction to Spirit. — Newton quoted. — Dr. Faraday 
quoted. — Prolific Properties the Medium of the Creator's Operations. — 
Light ; different opinions quoted. — Heat ; different opinions quoted. -*— 
The Amount of Heat at the Surface of the Earth. — Economy and Per- 
petuity Characterize the Works of God. — Force is the Action of a 
Creative Power. — Reciprocal Action the First Fundamental Law of 
Existence. — Law of Succession. — Science of Heat and Light. — Cold 
Increases as we Recede from the Earth. — Darkest Just Before Day. — 
Light and the Result of the Reciprocal Relation of the Two Orbs. — The 
Physical Constitution of the Sun Unknown. — The Dark Spots of the 
Sun. — Its Atmosphere. — Successive Gradations. — Sin the Physically 
Deranging Principle. — The Forces between the Positive and Negative 
Planets. — Polarity of Magnetic Forces, how Effected. — Nothern Lights. 

— Electric Egg. — Electricity. — Copper and Zinc Discs. — Chemical. 

— Magnetism. — Gravitation. — Cohesion. — Lightness of Inflammable 
Gas. — The Primary Distinction between the Sexes. — Woman's Rights. 

— Oneida County Association. — - Polarity of Individuals. — Diagram of 
the Head. — Lower Forms have Reference to the Human Form.— 
Veneration the Only Faculty Strictly Peculiar to Man. — Cerebellum 
Connected with the Voluntary Movements. — Not the Seat of the Sexual 
Instinct. -« The Method of Dr. Gall Discovering Amativeness . — His 
Theory Refuted. — Sir William Hamilton quoted. —The Instinctive 
Organs are Grouped Around the Spinal Cord. — Pons Varoli, tTbe Seat 
of the Sexual Instinct. — Travel of the Magnetic Forces. — Grouping of 
Organs. — Alimentiveness, Eventuality, Philoprogenitiveness, Self-Es- 



CONTENTS. 9 

teem and Veneration, their Pivotal Relation to other Organs. — The 
Religious Faculties the Sun of the Human Constitution. — The Attractive 
Forces of the Sexes. — Reverence the Positive Pole of the Sexual In- 
stincts. — A Diagram Illustrating the Line of Travel of the Magnetic 
Forces of the Sexes. — Adulteration of the Conjugal Principle. — 
Jealousy, — Conclusion. — Rev. S. Noble quoted 250-358. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 

Marriage Defined. — J. P. Bishop quoted. — Martin Bucer quoted. — 
Marriage Springs from the Divine Conjugal Sphere. — Morality the Basis 
of a Christian Marriage. — The Marriage Institution the Social Basis of 
Society. — Dr. Paley quoted. — The Nuptials Should be Consummated 
by One Filling a Priestly Office. — The Reciprocal Dependence of the 
Sexes. — New Jerusalem Magazine quoted. — Reciprocal Duties of 
Husband and wife. — The Correspondence of the Relation of Christ and 
the Church, is that of Husband and Wife. — The Wife is Conjoined to 
the Husband* by the Appropriation of his Virtue. — Solomon's 700 
Wives and 300 Concubines. — Respective Duties of Husband and Wife. 

— Helpmeet. — Contrast between Conjugal and Lustful Delights — 
The Prolific Principle Contains Every Quality of the Soul and Condition 
of the Body. — The Feeling of a Wifa Commanding. — Adultery, its 
Consequences. — Seminal Fluid, its Influence on Woman. — The Decline 
of Meretriceous Women, — The Ill-Success of Philanthropists in their 
Reformation. — The Effects of Adultery upon Man — Every Wrong 
Carries its Own Penalty. — Formation of the Conjugal Principle, — 
Persons Living in Promiscuous Concubinage are Never Religious. — 
The Effects of the Amalgamation of the Black and White Races. — 
Judgments Against Adulterers and Whoremongers. — The Quality of 
the Manhood is as the Quality of the Prolific Principle. — The Repro- 
ductive Element is the Connecting Medium between the Soul and Body. 

— Plane of Accountability. — The Plane of Moral Inversion. — The 
First Temptation to Eve 359-425. 



CHAPTER IX. 

DIVORCE. 

Bishop quoted. — Ruga Divorced his Wife. — Belshazzar Prostituted the 
Vessels of the Lord's House. — Napoleon Divorced Josephine. — The 
Disorders of the Marital Relations at the Present Time. — The Social 



10 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Demands of our Nature. — Physical Need of the Conjugal Rights. — 
Satan Uses the Highest Principle to Accomplish the Worst Ends. — The 
Wickedness of Conjugal Infidelity. — The Wifely Condition, how 
Created. — The Effects of Coition upon Parties who are in Adverse 
States of Life. — President Dwight of Yale College. — Desertion, its 
Evil and Sin. — Forgiveness, the Conditions of. — Marriage can Never 
be Annulled Only for Moral Eeasons. — 0. S. Fowler quoted. — Easy 
Divorce Laws are Incompatible with Public Morals. — Lord Stowell 
quoted. — Divorces in France following the French Revolution. — Rev. 
T, L. Harris quoted. — Bishop Leighton quoted. — The Impropriety of 
a Third Person Interfering in Domestic Difficulty. — The Folly of Mar- 
rying for merely Sensual Pleasures 426-475. 



CHAPTER X. 

LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 

Health Defined. — In What the Actual Skill of the Physician Consists. — 
The Cause of Disease. — An Hypothesis of Astronomers Considered. — r 
Diagram of the Trees. — ^Diagram of Correlative Forces — The Repro- 
ductive Instinct the Co-opposite Force of the Religious Faculties. — Dis- 
eases Take their Rise in the Will. — The Prolific Principle the Imme- 
diate Source of all Happiness. — Jewish Circumcision Typical of Sexual 
Purity. — The Chinese Five Sacred Books quoted. — Diseases Take their 
Rise in the Spiritual Plane of Life. — All Ages and Persons Subject to 
the [nfluence of Spirits, either Good or Evil. — Evil Spirits flow into 
Evil Loves. — Love a Conjunctive Principle. — Fear, an Exciting Cause 
of Disease. — Menstruation, its Office and Use. — - Scripturally Viewed. 

— Puberty, the Inauguration of the Period of Moral Accountability. — 
The Poison of the Menstrual Flow. — Cause and Cure of Disease. — 
Burton quoted on Disease. — - How to Remove Physical Suffering. — A 
Change of Moral State Effects a Change of the Physical Constitution. — 
Miracles and Magic Defined. — The Miraculous Cure of Miss Francourt. 

— Rev. Dr. Bushnell on Miracles. — Herr G-assner's Remarkable Cures. 

— Miracles, how Produced. — Cures by Magic Forces the Disease Back 
upon the Plane of the Spirit. — Hereditary Influence. — Monstrosities, 
Causes ot « 446-525. 



CHAPTER XI. 

MAN CONSIDERED IN HIS RELATION TO THE INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR 

LIFE. 

The Will the Negative Plane of the Understanding. — Light and Heat, 
how Produced. — Conscience, the Moral Atmosphere of the Will. — 



CONTENTS. 11 

Conscience, how Formed. — Correlation of Forces. — The Relation of 
God and Nature. — Doctrine of Fatalism Refuted. — Dreaming. — 
Memory the Conservative Faculty. — Sir William Hamilton quoted. — 
Dreams and Somnambulism Take Place During an Intermediate Condi- 
tion between Sleep and Awake. —Kant's Opinion on Dreaming. — 
Locke's Opinion. — Vividness of Thought During Sleep. —-Sir William 
Hamilton quoted. — Jouffroy quoted. — Double Consciousness Produced 
by Disease, also by Madness. — Somnambulism. — The Relation between 
Dreaming and Somnambulism. — A Remarkable Case of Double Con- 
sciousness. — A Case Related by Monboddo. — Man a Two-Fold Being. 
The Jewish Temple. — Premonitory Dreams, — Clairvoyant State, how 
Produced 526-572. 



CHAPTER XII. 

SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 

The General Ignorance upon this Subject. — The Relation between the 
Natural and the Spiritual Worlds. — Spiritual Influences are Intimately 
and Inseparably Blended with all Human Thoughts and Actions. — The 
Relation of God and Nature. — Spirit and Matter Distinctively One. — 
Evil Spirits Attack the Outer Before the Inner Consciousness. —In the 
Ratio as Wickedness Increases upon the Earth, the Spiritual World 
becomes Filled with Evil Spirits who Act as Mediums for the more Subtle 
Forces of the Pit, and Through whom the Most Infernal Genii can Obsess 
Mankind. — Angels Never Obsess or Speak in their Own Name. — 
The Danger of Continuing Insensible to Spiritual Influence. — What 
Constitutes a Medium. — - The Concentration of the Forces of a Multi- 
tude of Spirits into One Individual. — - A Rebuke of Blasphemy. — 
Swedenborg quoted on Good and Evil Spirits. — Scripture Testimony and 
Prevalence of Belief in Spiritualism. — - The Oracles Among the Greeks 
and Romans were in all respects Identical with the Men and Women 
Obsessed by Spirits at the Present Day. — -The Lord's Miracles in Cast- 
ing Out Devils and Healing the Sick. — - Three Classes of Spirits, viz. : 
Angels of Heaven, the Fiends of Hell, and the Wandering Inquiring 
Spirits of an Invisible State. — - Protestantism Destroyed the Belief in 
an Intermediate State. — Spiritualism in India. — In Germany. — Swed- 
enborg's Extraordinary Gifts. - — Spiritual Influx may be either from 
Heaven or Hell. — The Rational Faculty Derives its Existence from the 
Influx of the Light of Heaven. — Rev. T. L. Harris quoted. — Review 
of the Spiritualist Theories. — - Summary. — ■ Conclusion 573-650. 



Note. — In the hurry of business, many grammatical and typographical errors 
have crept in, for which the forbearance of the reader is respectfully solicited. 



INTRODUCTION 



In treating of any metaphysical subject it becomes necessary to 
commence with causes, and to trace them to their ultimate effects. 
The most needed knowledge of the present age is an acquaintance 
with the causes of the observable phenomena which everywhere 
surround us. By an irreligious skepticism on the one hand, and 
an unreasoning faith on the other, the chain of connection between 
the spiritual and the natural forces has been broken, and the 
balance of power in the understanding is lost, so that they who 
are oh one side are unable to pass over to those upon the other ; 
whence there can be no concord of opinion between them. In the 
following pages I shall endeavor, so far as my humble efforts will 
enable, to mend this broken link, and to establish harmony between 
these two hostile parties, and, at the same time, set forth the means 
of maintaining universal harmony in the social world. 

So stupendous a work is undertaken only through an unwaver- 
ing reliance upon the strength and wisdom of Him who is able to 
bring truth out of error and harmony out of discord. Freed from 
all party spirit, and being fully convinced that there is perfect 
concord between God's Word and Works when both are correctly 
understood ; and having the benefit of mankind as the sole actuat- 
ing motive of studying man's relation to God and the basis of the 
divine precepts, I shall follow only where the Bible, the Holy 
Spirit, and Science may lead. By these three, as a triune prin- 
ciple, I shall endeavor to be guided in each position. Whatever 
cannot stand their test, I shall deem either false or too uncertain 
to justly claim public confidence ; and though I may occasionally 
offer an hypothesis, I shall claim for it no further consideration 
than the facts may seem to warrant. I have no party to plead for 



14 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

but truth, none to condemn but error. I have somewhat extensive- 
ly explored both the Infidel and the Christian side of the question, 
and at the time with a love for each, so that I am not altogether 
disqualified to judge of their relative merits or to determine their 
influence upon the human character. I shall endeavor, at all 
times, to guard my pen from any other severity than that of truth ; 
but I shall not attempt to hide its two-edged sword in any mystical 
scabbard by any indirect or uncertain mode of expression. What- 
ever is necessary to be said, it shall be without prevarication. 

Both the Christian Scriptures and Creation are the offsprings of 
the Divine Mind, and both are intended to exercise human thought. 
And as the secrets of nature may be disclosed by its investiga- 
tion, why may not the Arcana of Revelation be unveiled through 
its activity ; especially if that activitv vibrates in harmony with 
its Divine Author ? We do not see the whole of Nature upon its 
surface ; neither can we expect to behold the whole of Revelation 
in its letter. As the petal of the flower is folded within succes- 
sive layers which protect it from the, rude blast until the progressive 
season is prepared to draw forth the sweetness of its fragrance ; so 
the higher principles of both Science and the Scriptures are folded 
within the cruder forms of their outward shielding ; that man, like 
a child, may first take on faith what his intellect is too feeble to 
comprehend. The winter's blast brings forth no fragrance from 
the flower, neither does a rebellious life perceive divine truths. 
True wisdom springs only from real goodness. 

The evolution of our knowledge of science has been progressive ; 
each generation, according to its fidelity to the Creator, adding 
new discoveries to the original stock. Still, we are now only upon 
the outward borders of the infinite field of investigation before us. 
Can it then be reasonably expected that the interior nature of man, 
with all its varied qualities, its aspirations and subtle workings, and 
his relation to God, could be comprehended by a people who could 
not comprehend even the cruder principles and phenomena of 
nature ? Even the Apostles, though they were personally instruct- 
ed by the Lord, and enjoyed daily association with Him, they were 
enabled to have but a limited appreciation of the philosophy and 
beauty of his teachings. Jesus said unto them, u I have many things 
to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now," (John 16:12) ; 
and again he said, " The time cometh, when I shall no more speak 
unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father." 
(John 16 : 25.) Here, then, are promises to communicate infor- 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

mation respecting more important truths than had been previously 
made. All that was necessary for their reception was a suitability 
of state on the part of man. Every one knows that the virtues of 
Christianit} r are the result of cultivation, — that they are the succes- 
sive growths of a holy life, springing from the subordination of the 
human will to the Divine precepts : and to say that the ivisdom of 
Christianity is not attainable by the same process, provided the 
feelings, the basis and sustainer of wisdom, are duly disciplined, is to 
assert what all experience contradicts. In science and religion, 
that which was revealed by our predecessors a century or so ago, 
has ceased to be satisfactory now ; not from its unfitness to human 
needs ; but the mind, having digested and assimilated it, demands 
still deeper truths — spiritual truths, which so dovetail into the nat- 
ural sciences that they become inseparably connected, and the recip- 
rocal sustainers of each other. Men now everywhere refuse to 
take faith on trust, and demand proof, such proof as springs from a 
oneness of science and religion, in contradistinction to the antag- 
onism between creeds and philosophy. The seeming must give 
place to the actual, sophistry to principles. Religion will break 
over all previous restraints, and claim the hand of science in holy 
wedlock. They have always been united in God, and they must 
ultimately be in the hearts and the understandings of men. Their 
divorce has yielded only bastard fruits, sickly in form, and early 
giving place to others, but of kindred feeble growth. What is now 
demanded, is a religion based upon principles rather than specula- 
tions, a religion so connected with the sciences that their reciprocal 
action shall be clearly understood, and thus become mutual helps 
to man in comprehending his relation to the world of mind and 
matter, that he may draw from their inexhaustible storehouse the 
blessings he needs. 

In a philosophical age we must have a philosophical religion — a 
religion which harmonizes with and becomes the expounder of 
creation. The doctrine of creeds too often fails to accord with 
man's sober reason. Hence it has long been, and still is, the cus- 
tom with many religious teachers to deprecate human reason in 
matters of religion, thinking thereby to exalt the wisdom of God, — 
that it transcends, even upon the ultimate plane, all human under- 
standing. They have opposed the introduction of every new truth 
in philosophy or science as inimicable to the Christian religion ; as 
though God's Word and Works were hostile to each other. The 
war has not been between the Scriptures and Science, but between 



16 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

unfounded creeds and an irrational philosophy. The objections 
which have been urged against Christianity, lie against its perver- 
sions rather than its truths ; and the defences which have been 
undertaken on those grounds, have not always been so successful 
as could be desired. Accurate doctrines upon the subject will thor- 
oughly dissipate the difficulties which have been openly raised by 
many, and secretly experienced by most. The infidelity of future' 
times will be deprived of its present plausibilities by the higher 
developments of religious knowledge which are now in progress. 
Free inquiry should be courted rather than condemned ; for the 
result must always be favorable to that which has God for its 
author. And in the ratio as man grows into a religious knowl- 
edge, and at the same time comprehends the workings of the 
natural laws, the apparent discrepancy which now exists between 
science and religion, will give place to a philosophy which will be 
equally explanatory of both. 

One object of the following pages is to show the connection and 
concord between the two, — that philosophy is the body of which 
the true Christian religion is the soul. As God lives in and ope- 
rates through Nature, so religion and philosophy are two parts of 
one f whole. Neither can be understood without the other, — to 
live in obedience to the requirements of one, is to pay homage to 
both. If, therefore, we would have a just comprehension of a 
true philosophy, we must first comprehend and yield obedience to 
the Divine precepts ; for it is only in this way that we can attain to 
the ability of a rational understanding of the ultimates of creation ; 
this being the only means we have of placing ourselves in relatidh 
with the sphere of causes, from which we can rationally reason to 
the plane of effects. 

In the undeveloped and half-civilized condition of mankind, the 
intellectual tendency is always one-sided and extreme. The mind, 
too feeble to grasp the whole, seizes upon certain abstract ideas, 
and while it may discover their importance, it fails to trace their 
connection and relation to other objects. To such, creation is dis- 
jointed, and the Spiritual becomes inimical to the Material. The 
war which exists between the carnal and the religious nature of 
man, is believed equally to exist between God's Word and Works. 
As philosophical investigation seems to be incompatible with relig- 
ious devotion, so religious devotion ignores scientific research. 
The devotees of each have long stood in hostile attitude to each 
other, evidently all unconscious of the fact that they were respec- 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

tively representatives of two halves, the union of which makes one 
whole. For it cannot be denied that every new discovery in 
science is an additional basis for every true Christian idea, so that 
the theologian and the man of science, are equally engaged in erect- 
ing the harmonic temple, w T herein the Christian philosophers of 
future ages, shall mingle their prayers and anthems of praise to 
Him who has succeeded in bringing harmony out of discord. 

In the philosophy which developed itself in the latter half of 
the last century, a new footing was gained for a rational belief in 
spiritual things. The materialism and skepticism of that age have 
already waned in their influence. A century ago, the philosopher 
and the religionist agreed in the view, that religion and reason 
were necessarily opposed to each other. Each, like the Christian 
'and Mahometan, condemned and despised the other, believing that 
there could be no reconciliation between them. Now, happily, a 
new and better, because more interior, philosophy is slowly unfold- 
ing itself; and joining hands with religion, the two are again 
found in lowly prostration before the throne of the Infinite. A 
new faith puts forth its tender shoots, — men can again look on life 
as a solemn reality, — can again, in sound reason and clear vision, 
perceive themselves to be in the process of preparation for an 
eternal existence. The world seems to them no longer to be 
merely a vast charnel house. Like the place where they laid the 
body of Jesus, it becomes at the same time, garden and sepulchre — 
a field where, though we may sow in tears, we may reap a harvest 
of immortal beatitude. They can see that as the outer man decays, 
the inner man rises into a higher vitality. The seed sown in the 
ground dies indeed, but there escapes from its covering the unfet- 
tered spirit, springing up into everlasting life. 

The massive pillars, therefore, of natural science, when properly 
interpreted, support the beautiful temple of the Christian religion. 
Science and Christianity are eternal consorts, living in the perpet- 
ual embrace of each other. No true philosophy, either natural or 
spiritual, ever has or can divorce them ; for they are married in 
God, bound together by the infinite cohesive force of His infinite 
Love and Wisdom. Every discovery in Science and every philo- 
sophical interpretation of the Scriptures, makes their relation more 
apparent to the human understanding. This is as it should be, 
and it is only in this way that they can ever afford any real and 
lasting satisfaction to the* truly philosophical mind. 



18 THE CONSTITUTION OP MAN. 

" I envy," says Sir Humphrey Davy, " no quality of the mind 
or intellect in others ; not genius, power, wit, or fancy ; but, if I 
could choose what would be most delightful, and I believe most 
useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other 
blessing. For it makes life a discipline of goodness, creates new 
hopes when all earthly hopes vanish, and throws over the decay 
and destruction of existence, the most gorgeous of all lights ; 
awakes life even in death, and from corruption and decay calls up 
beauty and divinity ; makes an instrument of torture and of shame 
the ladder of ascent to paradise ; and, far above all combinations 
of earthly hopes, calls up the most delightful visions of palms and 
amaranths, the gardens of the blest, the security of everlasting 
joys, where the sensualist and the skeptic view only gloom, decay, 
annihilation, and despair.' , 

What is at present most needed is a Christian Philosophy. " A 
firm religious belief" can never be rationally attained without it. 
All true science and true religion are counterparts to each other ; 
and it is only in their wedded union they can ever become prolific 
of a true rationality. The divorce of Religion from Philosophy, 
has also divorced the intellect from the senses. The latter desires 
immortality, but the former is unable to decide upon its actuality. 
A firm religious belief must be founded upon the Word of God ; 
and how can it rest on.. this foundation, — calmly, peacefully, and 
firmly,- — when the interpretation of the Word is made to contradict 
the well known principles of nature and philosophy? 

There is no denying the fact, that the mass of mind has receded 
from religion in the degree in which it has become enlightened in 
philosophy. True, there has been here and there one whose mind 
was capable of a still deeper and broader comprehension, who were 
enabled to discover the harmony and reciprocal action between the 
two. But these have been the exceptions and not the rule ; and 
for every one of such, there have been scores, if not hundreds, 
who have antagonized unfounded creeds with systems of philosophy 
scarcely less erroneous, from which they have drifted into the most 
perverse and unfortunate extremes of infidelity. From this cause 
it has long been a popular and prevailing opinion in the religious 
community, that the study of the sciences is inimical to a faith in 
the Christian Scriptures. And even philosophers, who have become 
such by reading rather than originality of thought, have seldom 
steered clear of this whirlpool of disbelief. The science of the 
Scriptures is too deep for the comprehension of a superficial mind. 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

Hence it was necessary that they should be taken on faith until 
mankind had grown into a comprehensive philosophy — a philosophy 
which should embrace both the spiritual and the natural sciences. 
We are now living in that period of the history of man, where, 
on the one hand, he is unwilling to yield a blind belief; and, on 
the other, he is not sufficiently enlightened to discover the real 
spiritual philosophy ; hence he can find no anchorage to which he 
can confidently feel to commit his destiny. Faith, without the 
least comprehension of the principles upon which it is founded ; 
and infidelity without spiritual rationality, chiefly makes up the 
two classes of society. Were it not for the fact that Faith is a 
principle, having its basis in the human constitution, the skepticism 
of the one class would be scarcely less commendable than the non- 
intellectual belief of the other. 

" No one who is accustomed to regard with much attention the 
history and tendency of religious opinions, can fail of being con- 
vinced, that the question, concerning the inspiration of- the Scrip- 
tures, is soon to become the most absorbing question of Christian 
Theology. The minds of men are in that position in reference to 
this subject, which cannot long be maintained. They must move 
one way or the other. They must attain to some sort of consis- 
tency, either by believing less, or by believing more. The authority 
of the Scriptures, and especially those of the Old Testament, must 
either become higher and stronger, or be reduced to almost nothing. 
It is vain to imagine that with the present secret or open skepticism, 
or at least vague and unsettled notions, with which they are 
regarded, even by many who are defenders of a special revelation, 
they can be read and taught in our churches, schools, and families, 
as books sui genoris, so as to command much of real reverence for 
themselves."* 

" He who would become a philosopher," says Bacon, tC must 
commence by repudiating belief" ; and concludes one of the most 
remarkable passages of his writings with the observation, that 
u were there a single man to be found with a firmness sufficient to 
efface from his mind the theories and notions vulgarly received, 
and to apply his intellect free and without prevention, the best 
hopes might be entertained of his success." Custom is called the 
queen of the world ; and " Opinion," says the great Pascal, 
" disposes of all things. It constitutes beauty, justice, happiness : 

* The Christian Examiner, January, 1844. 



20 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

and these are the all in all of the world." " Almost every opinion 
we have," says Charon, " we have but by authority ; we believe, 
judge, act, live and die on trust, as common custom teaches us ; 
and rightly, for we are too weak to decide and choose of our- 
selves. But the wise do not act thus." Or, as Sir W. Raleigh 
has expressed it, "It is opinion, not truth, that travelleth the 
world without passport." 

" There is a great difference," says Mallebranche, " between 
doubting and doubting. We doubt through passion and brutality ; 
through blindness and malice, and finally through fancy and the 
very wish to doubt ; but we doubt also from prudence and through 
distrust, from wisdom and through penetration of mind. The 
former doubt is a doubt of darkness, which never issues to the 
light, but leads us always further from it ; the latter is a doubt 
w r hich is born of the light, and which aids in a certain sort to pro- 
duce light in its turn. Indeed, it has been the opinion of many 
well educated persons that the developments of science tends to 
infidelity ; and at the present time,, many. whose minds are bewil- 
dered by sophistry rather than enlightened by philosophy, make a 
free use of the various phenomena, the causes of which are not 
understood to demonstrate the validity of their infidel opinions." 
While it may, in justice, be conceded that a superficial observation 
of natural results too frequently tend to an irreligious skepticism, it 
cannot be denied that a deeper research into occult causes fully 
substantiates the truth of the Christian Scriptures and their adap- 
tation to the needs of man. 

It is well observed by Mr. Stewart, " that it is not merely in 
order to force the mind from the influence of error, that it is use- 
ful to examine the foundation of established opinions. It is such 
an examination alone, that, in an inquisitive age like the present, 
can secure a philosopher from the danger of unenlightened skepti- 
cism. To this extreme, indeed, the complexion of the times is 
more likely to give a tendency, than to implicit credulity. In the 
former ages of ignorance and superstition, the intimate association 
which had been formed, in the prevailing systems of education, 
between truth and error, had given to the latter an ascendant over 
the minds of men, which it could never have acquired if divested 
of such an alliance. The case has, of late years, been most 
remarkably reversed ; the common sense of mankind, in conse- 
quence of the growth of a more liberal spirit of inquiry, has revolt- 
ed against many of those absurdities which had so long held human 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

reason in captivity ; and though it could have been desired, it was 
not to be expected that, in the first moments of their emancipa- 
tion, philosophers should have stopped short at the precise boun- 
dary which cooler reflection and more moderate views would have 
prescribed, The fact is, that they have passed far beyond it ; and 
that, in their zeal to destroy prejudices, they have attempted to 
tear up by the roots many of the best and happiest and most essen- 
tial principles of our nature. That implicit credulity is a mark of 
a feeble mind, will not be disputed ; but it may not, perhaps, be 
as generally acknowledged, that the case is the same with unlimit- 
ed skepticism : on the contrary, we are sometimes apt to ascribe 
this disposition to a more than ordinary vigor of intellect. Such a 
prejudice was by no means unnatural, at that period in the history 
of modern Europe, when reason first began to throw off the yoke 
of authority, and when it unquestionably required a superiority of 
understanding, as well as intrepidity, for an individual to resist the 
contagion of prevailing superstition. But in the present age, in 
which the tendency of fashionable opinions is directly opposite to 
those of the vulgar, the philosophical creed, or the philosophical 
skepticism, of by far the greater number of those who value them- 
selves on an emancipation from popular errors, arises from the 
very same weakness with the credulity of the multitude ; nor is it 
going to far too say, with Rosseau, that 4 he who, in the end of 
the eighteenth century, has brought himself to abandon all his 
early principles without discrimination, would probably have been 
a bigot in the days of the League.' In the midst of these con- 
trary impulses of fashionable and vulgar prejudices, he alone 
evinces the superiority and the strength of his mind, who is able to 
disentangle truth from error ; and to oppose the clear conclusions 
of his own unbiased faculties to the united clamors of superstition 
and of false philosophy. Such are the men whom nature marks 
out to be the lights of the world ; to fix the wavering opinions of 
the multitude, and to impress their own characters on that of their 
age." 

If we cast our eyes over the history of the past, it at once 
becomes apparent that the tendencies of the early stages of scien- 
tific research is to materialize the mind. It is scarcely possible for 
it to be otherwise ; for its constant engrossment with material 
objects, is fatal to all refining and spiritual influence. The investi- 
gation or observation of mere physical phenomena presents to the 
* Elements, volume I, book 11, page 68, et seq. 

4 



22 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

mind only physical facts ; and so long as these engross the whole 
attention, the mind fails to comprehend the occult forces by which 
they are produced. There are but few who are so constituted, 
that wdiile they observe outward phenomena, they can at the same 
time, keep their attention fixed upon its primary cause,. and trace 
the connection and relation between them ; and thus grasp the whole 
subject in one general view. It is only the immediate or exciting 
cause that secures their attention, while they forget that this is but 
an effect of a still more interior cause which bears a more imme- 
diate relation to the primary force which produces all ultimate 
effects. By this means they loose sight of the successive orders 
of gradations, and seeing only the operations of Nature, they 
attribute to it the original as well as the ultimate force. Hence, 
finding no plane of the Divine operations, they loose sight of God, 
turn to Nature and sink into idolatry ami infidelity. 

In these pages, it -will be my aim to show that God is an Infinite 
Personality, from whom Creation has derived its existence ; and 
that in virtue of this relationship, Nature, in its every department, 
is either mediately or immediately pervaded by His influence, 
which- constitutes all possible force in the realm of either Mind or 
Matter, — that there is no place where the Divine Influence does 
not operate, no force that is not primarily a Divine force, — that 
God is all and in all, operating in and through every conceivable 
object of creation. If it be said that He is not in the hand which 
unjustly smites his fellow man ; I reply, that the force which moves 
that hand is the force of the Divine Will, perverted to an unholy 
use by the freedom of the human will. Nor could a planet move, 
or a flower blossom, or a stream course its way to the ocean, or 
man raise his arm, or utter a sound, without being delegated with 
power from on high. Every thing, from the insect of an hour, to 
the unnumbered worlds which revolve in one stupendous lyric 
dance throughout immensity of space, not only derive their exis- 
tence from God, but are unceasingly operated by His forces. 
Remove this Primary Cause, and all nature ceases its action. 

Moreover, I shall endeavor to show that the Incarnation or 
Humanity of the Lord, and the Christian Scriptures, are immedi- 
ately and inseparably connected with this Primary force, operating 
through discrete degrees ; and are indispensable to the salvation of 
man, — that love for and obedience to their precepts, is the medium 
of conjunction with them, through which the Divine becomes incor- 
porated into the life of the individual,— that God and Nature 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

operates as one to effect uses on the universal principle of positive 
and negative action, — that there is but one force in nature, and 
that is a Divine force, operating through different mediums which 
constitute the different modes of the same force, — that the prolific 
element is the medium of Divine descent into the ultimate planes 
of life, — that marriage is a principle pervading universal existence, 
and is subject to no perversion, save in the freedom of the human 
will. From laws growing out of this marriage principle, I shall 
show the falacy of much of the present hypothesis pertaining to 
light, heat, electricity, magnetism, etc. ; and the cause of the revo- 
lution of the planets and their relation to each other. In the 
chapter titled " The Laws of Connection," I shall set forth the 
facts of the persistence of those forces which enter into the forma- 
tion of any new relation or condition, — showing that with what- 
ever principles any new undertaking is commenced, they will con- 
tinue to control all its future results. 

To succeed in this undertaking is to remove all infidelity from 
those who become imbued with the philosophy of this work ; for 
it establishes in the mind, the connection between the primary 
cause and ultimate effect, and shows the nature of man's relation 
to his God, the rationality of the Divine precepts, and the necessity 
and office of the Divine Humanity. It is designed to be strictly a 
Christian Philosophy, — a work probably more needed than any 
other at the present crisis of the world. Moreover, if its principles 
are well founded, they clearly show how effectually Religion and 
Science are wedded, when both are better understood, and so far 
from their being hostile one to the other, they are so inseparably 
blended, like soul and body, as to constitute but one indissoluble 
principle. 

No well-balanced mind who has critically investigated the 
different systems of theological speculations, can fail to discover 
deplorable imperfections in each, disjointed hypotheses which set 
at defiance all attempts at reconciliation and outrage every princi- 
ple of rationality. It cannot reasonably* be expected that such 
creeds, repelling every logical conclusion, will be likely to be 
accepted by the cool and deliberate philosopher who feels himself 
called upon to give a reason for the hope within him. Confident 
that God still maintains a definite relation to the universe which 
He has created, he is certain that every department of the human 
constitution, the moral as well as the physical, is governed by 
definite laws growing- out of the nature and relation of things, so 



24 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

that Religion, when properly understood, will become a comprehen- 
sive system of philosophy, instead of the present system of uncer- 
tain and often groundless speculation, — -a system which will more 
effectually define the relation between cause and effect in the moral 
world, than does our present limited knowledge of the natural 
sciences in the physical. If Nature, as the ultimate of creation, 
is governed by definite and unchangeable laws, equally certain and 
definite must be every interior principle from w~hich these laws 
derive their existence. And as an effect cannot transcend its 
cause, the physical constitution cannot become more certain in its 
operations than the moral. The chief aim of this work is to show 
the relation between the two, how each becomes impaired, and by 
what means they can again be brought into harmony with the 
forces of the universe. 

In an age like the present, when, in consequence of having lost 
sight of the connecting principles between the Spiritual and the 
Natural, many of the best minds have failed to discover the ration- 
ality of the Christian Religion, no greater good can be done than 
to repair the broken links in the chain of connection, and to show 
man, philosophically, the conditions upon which he is to attain 
happiness, both here and hereafter. True, there are yet multi- 
tudes — though their number is rapidly diminishing — who are 
willing to take assertions on faith ; but a still larger class demand 
proof, and need to see the relation between the assumed effect and 
its legitimate cause. Prohibitions apparently based upon arbitrary 
authority — and they are such to the individual until he can dis- 
cover the principles upon which they are founded — are insufficient 
to restrain man from a vicious course of life. He must first dis- 
cover upon what, principle he is likely to loose any blessing by pur- 
suing any given course of conduct, before he can feel himself justly 
called upon to restrain his natural inclinations by disciplining his 
ways into obedience to the Divine precepts. To the irreligious 
mind it is not enough that these precepts are found in the Christian 
Scriptures ; for with such the question of authority and expediency 
are both to be proved ; but not having the personal experience, 
the proof is wholly wanting until it is demonstrated by a compre- 
hensive system of philosophy. For me to say that I have felt 
their truth is to provoke in the skeptic a smile of distrust, and 
reasonably so, for it is not the feelings but the rationality that is to 
be the criterion of decision. The atheist may feel that he is right ; 
but he has no possible means of demonstrating the truth of his 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

position, for every principle of philosophy is against him. It, there- 
fore, devolves upon the Christian to designate the principles upon 
which his confidence is based, and at the same time to show the 
relation between the spiritual cause and the natural effect. It is 
only in this way that his opinion can secure the confidence of the 
infidel, or justly claim any high order of respect. How far I have 
succeeded, in the following pages, in this undertaking, is left for a 
discriminating public to decide. 

So far as the Author is aware, he can justly lay claim to being 
the pioneer in the field of investigation which makes up a large 
share of the following pages. He has no doubt that some altera- 
tions and much addition will hereafter be made ; in fact, he is fully 
aware that he has gathered only here and there a single blossom 
from the infinite field before him ; and if the Providence of the 
Lord shall so permit, he intends to spend the remainder of his days 
in perfecting what is here commenced. And he hopes, that other 
and more able minds, will soon turn their attention to the same 
important subject ; for the field is too vast for any one mind to 
be the original explorer of it all and to elucidate its teachings. 
Any suggestions or high-toned and just criticisms, will, therefore, 
receive his candid consideration ; while, at the same time, no 
attention will be given to any mere fault-finding or captious 
remarks, which often shamefully characterize the lower order of 
the press. It is proper here to add, that he has frequently made 
use of the ideas of others ; and, in several instances, used their 
own form of expression without naming the author or giving the 
usual credit ; neither the author nor the book being placed upon 
his notes, he could not refer to the quotations without a loss of more 
time than he was willing to bestow. This will account for the 
omission. 

The laws of Conjugality underlies the discoveries of the follow- 
ing pages, — a law which is as universal as the existence of Mind 
and Matter. While it has been quite generally conceded by all 
ages and nations, that man is receptive of spiritual forces objective 
to himself, it has never, to my knowledge, been ascertained in 
what the specific principle connected with the human constitution, 
and into which this influx is immediately received, consists. It has 
ever been believed that man is in some way connected with his 
Creator in a different sense than merely as cause and effect, — that 
there is a still more intimate relationship which constitutes a one- 
ness more like that of husband and wife, than that of parent and 



26 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

child, — a belief founded upon Biblical doctrines. But how this 
oneness is effected, or what constitutes the specific principle by 
which it is maintained, the world is wholly ignorant; and so long 
as this ignorance prevails, there can be no rational basis upon which 
to predicate a philosophical Religion, nor any true explanation of 
the cause of the deplorable condition of the public morals. To 
check any evil, it is first necessary to know by what avenue it finds 
access to the individual, and then apply the remedy to the cause 
of the disease. 

Marriage as an Institution, has also here received special atten- 
tion. Based, as it is, upon the first fundamental principles o£ 
life, and underlying every physical and moral condition of society, 
it is but proper that it should. No principles are less understood, 
even by the more enlightened portions of the public, than the 
the laws pertaining to the relation of the sexes, — none have culmi- 
nated in more terrible distastes to individuals and society. From 
observation, but far more from religious teaching, the majority of 
mankind have grown into an intellectual consciousness of the 
importance of maintaining the sanctity of the marriage institution. 
But upon what laws, inmost in the relation of the sexes, this 
institution is based, and why their infringement should prove 
universally disasterous to mankind, no one, to my knowledge, has 
ever had the most distant conception. So profound has been the 
ignorance upon this subject, that even the Christian has failed to 
discover upon what principles God has so strenuously restricted 
the commerce of the sexes, — why this strongest of all the instincts 
is put under the ban of exclusiveness. As the result of this uni- 
versal ignorance, the most preposterous doctrines have, from time 
to time, been advocated, every one of which have found many 
adherents, who have drifted into the worst disorders in consequence 
of cutting loose from the only safe moorings of the Biblical pre- 
cepts. The discoveries set forth in these pages, I am persuaded, 
are of more vital importance to society than any hitherto made ; 
they are discoveries which underlie every principle of the human 
constitution, and will prepare the way for a proper understanding 
of the relation of the sexes, and guard individuals from the 
excesses into which they have so often run. 

The Author of this Treatise has discovered, not only that which 
connects the moral and physical constitution of the individual, but 
the primary principle of every phenomena of existence, and 
which connects the spiritual world with the natural, and the 






INTRODUCTION. # 27 

universe with God. The importance of this discovery cannot be 
questioned ; for it constitutes not only the basis of all physical and 
moral reform, by underlying every principle of the human consti- 
tution, but it reveals the mystery of every occult force in Nature. 
Once establish the Universal Conjugal principle in the mind, and 
we come in possession of the key, which, when scientifically used, 
will admit us into every philosophical department of creation. 

Newton discovered the law of attraction, which holds physical 
particles and bodies in relation to each other, without ever pretend- 
ing to have extended his observation beyond them. He simply 
designated ancLnamed an attractive force apparently an inherent 
property of alWdtter, and from its uniform action he drew his 
philosophical deductions. But in what this force consists, or how 
or by what means it is connected with the cause of its existence, 
or whether or no it is self-existent, I am not aware that he ever 
pretended to have the least knowledge. He was strictly an obser- 
ver of Nature, without possessing the moral qualities adapted to 
higher research ; and like all other phenomenal philosophers, he 
was a posteriori rather than a priori reasoner; and as such, he could 
discover no principle beyond the merely phenomanal phase of 
observation. I claim, on the contrary, to have discovered and 
elucidated, in these pages, the law of attraction, not pertaining to 
physical bodies only, but to universal existence, moral as well as 
physical, and to have traced it from its primary cause to its ulti- 
mate effect, — a discovery paramount to all others by including 
them all ; and have set forth the relation of all phenomena, whether 
of mind or matter, and the hidden forces which produce them ; and 
at the same time, have shown by what means the Creator maintains 
the order of the moral and the physical world. Strictly speaking, 
Newton's discovery was phenomenal; mine fundamental. He 
called attention to a principle pervading all matter, the nature and 
cause of which, he did not understand ; but demonstrated its mode 
of operation in its purely phenomenal phase. But I have set forth 
the origin and nature of this principle and its mode of operation 
throughout univeral existence ; and shown that cohesive and grav- 
itative attraction are the conservation of Divine forces, which 
operate with no less certainty and uniformity on the mental and 
moral plane, than on the physical. 

Galileo discovered the revolution of the planets ; but I claim 
to have discovered the nature of their relation to each other, 
and the force by which they are moved in their respective orbits. 



28 TjjE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Here, too, speculations must give place to scientific principles. 
Again ; the nature of Light and Heat, and the cause of their 
phenomena, have hitherto been an inexplicable mystery. In these 
pages the Author will show what they are and how they are 
induced, — that they do not exist in virtue of the absolute entity of 
any one particular orb or central sun ; but are the result of the 
positive and negative condition of two orbs holding a specific rela- 
tion to each other ; thus obviating the necessity of the ridiculous 
hypothesis of central globes of fire, and the combustion of an 
infinite number of lesser planets in order to maintain the luminous 
and calorific conditions of a pivotal orb. Moreover, it obviates 
the necessity of applying the law of inverse squa^Jp the distance, 
— a well known law of light and heat, — to the planetary universe ; 
for, were this law applicable to the solar system, it would deprive 
the more remote planets of any thing like an adequate amount of 
light and heat to sustain either animal or vegetable life, even in 
their lowest form. It is folly to say that God can adapt the con- 
stitution of their inhabitants to this inconceivably dark and refrig- 
erant condition, for we are not to judge from what He might do, 
but from what we know Him to do. If we were to judge from 
what the imagination might conceive him capable of doing, rather 
than what He does do, we would be left without any basis of 
reasonings, hence could arrive at no conclusion beyond the limits 
of our absolute senses. . 



CHAPTER I. 



JEHOVAH GOD. 



In the discussion of any subject it first becomes necessary to 
define the basis from which our conclusions are drawn. The pecu- 
liarity of the following pages, however, does not render it necessary 
for me to attempt to prove the existence of a God ; for the very 
nature of the subjects treated upon will contain within themselves 
the strongest arguments that can well be offered in proof of an over- 
ruling and designing Providence. The principles or attributes of 
God as the primeval cause and operative force of all existence, 
will be the theme of the present chapter. Throughout this work 
the Christian Scriptures will be recognized as the Word of God, 
and as such final in authority. 

To ascertain the properties of God is to come into possession 
of the key to every fundamental principle in Nature. But how to 
effect this is the problem to be solved. Human reason, unaided, 
is wholly inadequate to even conjecture in reference to His quali- 
ties, independent of observable phenomena ; therefore, we have 
only two sources of information, viz.: Nature and Revelation. 
These will be the basis of our argument, and from their united 
testimony we shall draw our conclusions. 

In whatever direction we turn our attention, we discover two 
principles in active operation ; one having reference to Intelligence 
or design ; and the other to the perfection or well-being of the 
thing designed, — Wisdom characterizing the former, and goodness 
the latter. I use the term " Jehovah God " as designating divine 
good and divine truth, or, divine love and divine wisdom. The 
union of these two principles constitutes the third, which is power, 
the only force in Nature. Here we have a trinity of principles in 
a unity of person; and not as has been too frequently supposed, a 
trinity of persons in a unity of principles. This constitutes a 



30 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

formula of Father, (Wisdom,) the Son, (Love,) and the Holy- 
Spirit, (Procedure.) Or we may adopt another mode of expres- 
sion, as follows : The Divine Active, the Divine Passive, and the 
Divine Ability ; or still another: The Divine Masculine, by which 
He begets ; the Divine Feminine, by which He conceives ; and 
a Divine Procedure of the Masculine in Feminine, by which He 
ultimates. Either of these formulas are synonymous in principle 
with Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In this view of the subject, 
the ancient Polytheism assumes a distinct Infinite Personality, con- 
taining a Trinity of discrete degrees. Some have assumed that 
these three degrees may have become discreted into separate 
hypostasis, — that as the Father hath life in Himself, and hath 
given to the Son to have life in Himself, so likewise the Father, 
through the Son, may have given to the Holy Ghost to have life 
in Himself, as the conjunctive medium with regenerating humanity. 
But I am unable to see wherein this has any advantage over the 
common idea of a Triune God. In either case it is three person- 
alities cooperating to one end, which belief destroys all actual 
conception of God, for man has never been endowed with a faculty 
by which he can conceive of three as one. 

Before the dawn of creation, or e'er the morning stars sang 
together for joy, God was Love itself, and Wisdom itself, in their 
respective tendencies to effect uses. Love folded in the embrace 
of Wisdom, could become fixed in eternal perpetuitv, only by 
ultimating their qualities upon the plane of effects ; and it appears 
to me that creation was the inevitable result of the Divine Exis- 
tence ; for the very nature and qualities of that existence are 
uses — the planetary systems being their theatre of action. Were 
it possible to conceive of perfect Wisdom without planning, or of 
perfect Love without executing, we might conceive of a God inhab- 
iting the solitude of an infinite nonentity, brooding forever in the 
consciousness of His own desolate condition. But by the execution 
of the plans of Wisdom through Love, a plane of use is established, 
and God is enabled to dwell eternally amid the galaxy of His 
unnumbered worlds, •which are ever moving in a lyric dance 
through immensity, each bearing upon its bosom its successive 
orders of countless myriads of joyous beings, happy in their own 
conscious existence, and filling infinite space with the melody of 
their universal pean of praise. 

On the one hand, the existence of a God may well be said to 
be nearly a universal belief of mankind. Even those who deny 



JEHOVAH GOD. 31 

his personality, but transfer to Nature the power which the Chris- 
tian attributes to God. The evidences of a controlling principle are 
everywhere so observable that none pretend to deny its existence ; 
and the evidences of design are so clearly manifest that but few 
have been so mentally eclipsed as not to admit of an intellectual 
arrangement in every department of creation. But, on the other 
hand, it appears to me that nearly all Christendom has labored under 
no little mistake in transforming the attributes of God into distinct 
personalities. The Catholic faith is this : " That we worship one 
God in trinity, and trinity in unity ; neither confounding the per- 
sons, nor dividing the substance ; for there is one person of the 
Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost ; and 
yet these are not three gods, but one God ; although the Father is 
God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. For like as 
we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every 
person by himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the 
Catholic faith to say there are three gods or three lords." The 
Protestant formula is : u There are three persons in the Godhead, 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one 
GOD, the same in substance, equal in power and glory."* Three 
in one is a contrariety of expression which it is impossible for the 
mind to understandingly receive ; and it conveys, at least to a 
majority of minds, a wholly false and mischievous idea ; for, not- 
withstanding the assertion that " these three are one," the mind 
intuitively recognizes three personalities as distinct entities. Man- 
kind has never been endowed with the ability to comprehend a 
plurality as a single, for it is an impossible chimera. Much of the 
skepticism and irreligion in reference to the Lord in His Divine 
Humanity, has grown out of this hypostatical theory of the Trinity. 

But were we to say that there is one Eternal, Omnipotent, and 
Immutable God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, who 
manifested himself in the flesh as the Lord the Redeemer of 
man, and wmose most Holy Spirit is ever operative to maintain 
the order of the Universe, and to secure the happiness of His crea- 
tures ; we transpose the incomprehensible formula of the Trinity, 
into a simple mode of expression, as easy to be understood, as that, 
Washington possessed a Spirit and a Body, and through their 
united action, he secured the Independence of America. God is 
a Spirit, Christ the Body, in which that Spirit dwells in all the 
fullness of the Godhead ; therefore, it appears clearly evident to 

*New England Primer. 



32 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

me, that the Divine Trinity is in the Lord the Saviour, as the 
spirit, the body, and the virtues proceeding therefrom. The Father 
of the Humanity of the Lord, was the divine principle in that 
Humanity, so that in Him (the Lord Jesus Christ) dwelt all the 
fullness of the Godhead bodily ; and the Holy Spirit is the divine 
principle proceeding from that Humanity, as soon as it was made 
Divine, which was completed upon the cross ; and thus these 
three are One, — the Supreme Divinity within the Divine Human- 
ity, from which Humanity issues a saving principle (the Holy 
Spirit) to mankind. Thus, we have a Divine Humanity and a 
Human Divinity, meeting man upon his own plane of existence ; 
without which a redemption could never have been effected ; for, 
had not God descended to humanity, humanity could never have 
ascended to Him. The Lord the Saviour, opened the ivay which 
man, of himself, had no ability to do ; therefore, to reject the Lord 
in His Humanity, is to reject the only way of Salvation. 

The awful chasm between the Divine and man's fallen nature, 
could be bridged only by God himself — man having lost the power 
even to move in that direction ; whence the Lord descended 
through his Humanity to man's estate, and took upon himself all 
the conditions to which man is subject from birth to maturity ; but 
instead of yielding to their sinful expression, and like us becoming 
their victim, He conquered temptation at every point, and became 
victorious over death and hell, and cast up a highway through his 
Humanity, — the way of holiness, — which shall be for the redeemed, 
over which nothing unclean can pass ; a no lion shall be there, 
nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, but the ransomed of 
the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting 
joy upon their heads ; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and 
sorrow and sighing shall flee away."* u The highway of the 
upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth 
his soul."f Jesus is the way. 

That the Humanity of our Lord was born of the virgin Mary 
is not disputed. But the question is, was God the animating Spirit 
of that human form ? or was He the progenitor of the animating 
Spirit, holding to it the relation of Father ? or was Christ like 
other men, differing only in degree ? The Holy Word alone can 
settle these questions, human reason, unaided, being wholly inade- 
quate to the task. But here again, the first question to settle is, 
to what department does certain passages of Scripture apply ? To 
* Isaiah 35 : 9, 10. t Proverbs 16 : 17. 



JEHOVAH GOD. 33 

settle this question, we will start out on the broadest possible basis, 
embracing the two extremes. In Revelations we have this remark- 
able passage, " I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the 
End, the First and the Last."* Alpha and Omega, are the first 
and last letters of the Greek alphabet ; all others being included 
between them. Now, to whom does this apply, to the Father, 
Son, or Holy Ghost? Who is the Alpha, the Beginning, the First ? 
the Omega, the End, the Last ? Most fortunately this question is 
clearly settled for us in St. Paul's reasonings to the Ephesians : 
" There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one 
hope of your calling ; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God 
and Father of all. But unto every one of us is given grace 
according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore He 
saith, when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and 
gave gifts unto men. Now that He ascended, what is it but that 
He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth ? He 
that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all 
heavens, that He might fill all things."! Thus He has com- 
pleted the journey from the infancy of humanity to God. At one 
extreme we behold him as the babe in the manger : at the other 
the Controller of Universal Creation. John says : " In the 
' beginning ' was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
Word was §rod. The same was in the ; beginning ' with God. 
All things were made by Sim ; and without Him was not anything 
made that was made. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt 
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-be- 
gotten of the Father, /Wf of grace and truth." % 

The argument is brief, but if there is any reliance to be placed 
upon the Sacred Scriptures, it appears to me to be full and conclu- 
sive, for we here have both the centre and circumference, to which 
nothing can be added. Impeach the Scriptures and we are left in 
a boundless chaos, without chart or compass. 

In the Chinese " Five Sacred Books," which date back 400 
years before Moses, and were subsequently compiled by Confucius, 
we find the following important statement : " By consulting the 
ancient traditions, we know that though the Holy One will be born 
upon earth, yet he existed before anything was made." Again : 
" The Holy One will unite in himself all the virtues of heaven and 
earth. By his justice the world will be reestablished in the ways 
of righteousness. He will labor and suffer much. lie must pass 

* Revelations, 22 : 13. t Ephesians, 4 : 4-10. % John, 1. 



34 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the great torrent, whose waves must enter into His soul ; but he 
alone can offer up to the Lord a sacrifice worthy of Him." 

If it be said that to destroy the Trinity of persons makes God 
both the begetter and begotten, I answer that God never was 
begotten. But that the Humanity by which he clothed himself in 
order to effect our redemption, was begotten by Himself, and for 
the best of all- possible reasons, that there was no other to beget it. 
Therefore, the Humanity alone is the Son, and the Supreme 
Divinity its Father. United they were the eternal " God mani- 
fested in the flesh."* Herein consists the verity of that declara- 
tion, "I and my Father are one," — as soul and body are one. 
" I am the way, and the truth, and the life : no man cometh unto 
the Father but by me." How is He the " way "? I answer, that 
by the insulating influence of sin, man had been driven from the 
inner garden of his nature, and so had lost his direct connection with 
God, — a connection which, of himself, he had no power to regain. 
The Lord, therefore, most mercifully descended into the external 
plane of life, and reestablished that connection with all who will 
accept of his Humanity as the means of their return ; at the same 
time, assuring us that " There is no other name under heaven given 
among men whereby we must be saved. "f Oh ! that man could 
see the infinite importance of clinging with the strong hold of faith 
to the Humanity of our Lord ! For, " no man ca^ come to the 
Father but by me," — to the Spirit, but by the Body ; to the Divine, 
but through the Human. He is the " Truth," because he is the 
source of all truth ; he is the Life because he is the fountain of all 
life, in whom we live, move and have our being. " Have I been 
so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? 
he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father;" u Believest thou 
not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ? The words 
that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father that 
dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." J As much as to say : The 
power which you observe in me, does not abstractly belong to the 
human form, but is, in virtue of the Divinity of the Spirit, con- 
joined to it. Like others, the outward form was born of woman, 
that he might have a medium of direct connection with mankind, 
even in their fallen condition ; but unlike others, the conception 
was by the Holy Spirit. And here, let it be borne in mind, that 
it is a physiological truth, that in all conceptions, the soul is from 
the father, but is clothed upon by the mother. In other words, 

* 1 Timothy, 3 : 16. f Acts, 4 : 12. J John, 14 : 9, 10. 



JEHOVAH GOD. 35 

the male is the re-begetting principle, but the female is the receptive 
or clothing principle. The seed is cast into the earth, and through 
her instrumentality is clothed upon. The Lord's Humanity was 
only the clothing which His Divinity took upon Himself. 

The soul and body are two substances distinct from each other, 
but reciprocally united. The former acts in and upon the latter, 
but not by or through it, for the action is mutual — the soul acting 
upon the body, and the body acting from the soul. The body has 
an organic force which it communicates to the soul, and the soul 
has a spiritual force which it communicates to the body. The 
communication of motion by thought, which we ascribe to spirit, 
is as evident as that of impulse, which we ascribe to body. Con- 
stant experience makes us sensible of both of these, though our nar- 
row understandings can comprehend neither. Just so in the Lord's 
Divine Humanity ; for the Divinity of the Father is the soul of 
His Humanity. Thus the two natures mutually dwell together ; 
the Father in Him, and He in the Father — a duality in oneness. 
The union of the two natures was made complete at the time of 
his glorification of the Human, having yielded in death all that 
belonged to the plane of temptation or fallen humanity. 

This dual nature was not separated upon the cross ; but here 
He conquered the last temptation, subjugated the hells, and made 
the Human Divine ; for the third day after his Passion, which 
completed the glorification of his Human, He raised the same 
body in which He had dwelt among us. When His Apostles 
were terrified and affrighted, supposing they had seen a spirit, He 
said unto them, " Why are ye troubled ? and why do thoughts 
arise in your hearts ? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I 
myself: handle me, and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, 
as ye see me have."* The glorification was effected by the com- 
plete union of the Lord's Humanity with the Divinity of His 
Father. His life had been one continual scene of most terrific 
combats with evil. All the hells had converged as to one focal 
point, to subjugate the human Divinity. Had he not been tempted 
there could have been no victory. Had He, in a single instance, 
yielded to temptation, His work would have been incomplete, and 
a link in the chain of salvation would have been broken, causing a 
chasm over which man could never pass. 

But step by step, amid all the artillery- of hell, he opened up the 
way from conception to maturity ; meeting, and gloriously triumph- 

* Luke, 24: 38-9. 



36 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

ing over the adversary at every point ; making life a grand and 
victorious march through the vale of fallen humanity ; driving 
back the obsessing demons and relieving their captives ; lifting up 
the fallen and bidding them sin no more ; opening the eyes of the 
blind and requesting them to wash and be clean ; unstopping the 
ears of the deaf, that they might hear and live ; restoring the pal- 
sied limbs, that they might walk the path of righteousness ; healing 
the sick, that they might become strong in Him ; restoring the 
dead to newness of life ; and when the last final conflict drew 
near, borne down with unbearable sorrow, which forced the blood 
from its accustomed channels, wearied ; but yet made strong by 
the combats of life, He beheld the united forces of all the infernal 
spirits, who saw that their judgment drew near, focalized in the 
Jewish hierarchy, which had now become the central point of 
the world's pride and treachery ; and in awful anguish He cries, 
"If it be possible let this cup pass from me." But He nerves 
himself to the task, and, apparently alone, takes His cross and 
marches to Calvary where he is to engage in the final contest. 
Here the victory is to be won, or all is lost forever. This was 
more than an era ; a juncture of all the eras of time. The event 
of that hour was to determine whether earth was to pass entirely 
into the hands of Satan, or be recovered into the hands of God ; 
whether the expiring rays of human hope should henceforth radi- 
ate light and life to the universe ; it was to draw to a close the 
great question, to terminate the controversy of all ages, between 
right and wrong, holiness and sin. The artillery of all the com- 
bined Powers of Darkness were poured upon Him, and their 
mephitic vapors shrouded the earth in gloom by shutting out the 
light of the sun ; the vail ot the temple was rent in twain from 
top to bottom ; the earth quaked and the rocks rent ; the graves of 
the dead were opened ; and universal nature sympathized in this 
terrific struggle. At last, our Lord cries out " My God, My God, 
why hast thou forsaken me ? " Another desperate struggle ensued : 
mocked in his awful agony, He finally exclaimed: " It is finished," 
and bows His head in death. Victory seemed to turn upon the 
side of evil. The fairest hopes and fondest expectations which 
bloomed like a fruitful Paradise in the hearts of his followers, 
expired with their Lord. More than desolation brooded o'er the 
earth. He, who was to rescue a fallen world, was himself in the 
tomb. Three days,— the saddest days of earth, — rolled their 
lingering hours into the abyss of the past, when, lo, the Son of 



JEHOVAH GOD. 37 

God announced his final triumph over hell and the grave. The 
victory was complete. The way was now opened from earth 
to heaven, and He had erected His cross in the highway to hell 
that He might rescue sinners from the very jaws of perdition. 
Yea, more, He had formed an immediate connection with every 
devil therein by submitting Himself to their temptations, and then 
conquering them in His own person. By this means, He subject- 
ed the whole infernal host to His own will. Not a soul of them 
dares to raise a finger against His mandates, and whenever He 

CT CT ' 

commands they obey. While He saves the repentant sinner, He 
controls the damned. 

Then, and not till then, did the powers of darkness discover 
their mistake — that what appeared to be our Lord's defeat was 
his victory. With unutterable dismay they saw, that in bowing His 
head He had dragged the pillars of their empire to the dust, that 
He had transformed His cross into a throne, and established His 
kingdom forever : that He had erected His church upon the rock of 
Truth and baptized it with His own blood, against which the gates 
of hell shall not prevail ; and that every member belonging to it 
should be a vassal rescued from the empire of sin, many of whom 
were once vicegerants of its imperial Monarch. The devils now 
became subject to the Lord's disciples, and were compelled to flee 
whenever commanded. The realization of the Lord's statement, 
that the prince of this world should be judged and cast out, had 
begun to be a daily experience. Satan's captives, whether Jew or 
Gentile, were everywhere set at liberty as soon as they were will- 
ing to accept of their Redeemer. The proclamation had gone 
forth, u let him that is athirst, come: and whosoever will, let him 
take the water of life freely." The moral light which illuminates 
the heavens had now become established on earth, to make plain 
the pathway of life. The devices of Satan had been exposed, and 
he himself made subject instead of ruler of the human will ; so 
that none need to become his slaves who do not first seek to 
become his servants. Power was given man to become the sons 
of God ; and though living in the suburbs of hell upon a planet 
infested with evil, he may become the temple of the Holy Ghost. 
Through our Lord's victory, we can have God for our father, 
Christ for our elder brother, Heaven for our home, Angels for our 
companions, and devils for our slaves. 

The Humanity of our Lord was instituted as the great ordi- 
nance by which God and man might again commune together — 

6 



38 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the appointed place of meeting between Divine and human thoughts ; 
for all the lines of the Divine manifestations converge and meet in 
Him, where also all our devotional thoughts and affections centre. 
Up to the time of man's apostacy, this ordinance existed in virtue of 
their relation of Creator and created, God having made man recep- 
tive of the Divine, so that there was a direct connection between 
them. But when man allowed himself to become infested with 
evil, the Divine avenues were closed up, for the two could not 
dwell together, and he was driven out from the Paradise wherein 
he had once held communion with God, into the field covered with 
thorns and thistles, the representatives of sin, which he is required 
to subdue in order to prepare the conditions of a second Paradise. 
Demons enthroned themselves amid man's disordered appetites 
and affections, and held his will in the iron grasp of fiendish malig- 
nity. It was morally impossible for him, unaided, to successfully 
combat with his infesting foe. Wherefore the Lord mercifully 
descended into this barren and ruined waste, and conquered these 
enemies in their successive order, and has ever since continued the 
successful combat through all who seek to return by the way and 
means appointed. That way is His Humanity, through which His 
Spirit descends and reestablishes a direct connection with man. 



The Holy Spirit. 

In the foregoing remarks, I have endeavored to show the one- 
ness of Christ with God ; constituting a Divine Humanity and a 
Human Divinity, and that the Lord's Humanity was a medium of 
conjunction with every department of man's nature, in order to 
conquer for him the evils connected therewith, and effect his 
redemption. It now remains to speak of the Third, or Proceeding 
principle in the God-head, which is immediately and constantly 
operative upon man. 

The reader is here called to particularly notice, that in the Word 
of the Old Testament, no mention is made of the Holy Spirit, 
except once in Psalms,* and twice in Isaiah. f David stood as a 
representative of the Lord in His Divine Humanity, which 
accounts for his employing an expression used by no other Scrip- 
ture writer : u Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." In II Samuel % 
he says: " The Spirit of the Lord (Jehovah) spake by me, and 

*51:11. t63:10, 11. $23:2. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 30 

his word was in my tongue." And Christ confirms this statement 
while teaching in the temple : " How say the scribes that Christ is 
the Son of David ? For David himself said by the Holy Spirit, 
The Lord (more properly Jehovah) said to my Lord, Sit thou on 
my right hand, till I make thine enimies thy footstool "* ; which is 
equivalent to saying, that the Divinity says to the Humanity of 
our Lord, this victory over death and hell shall be complete. A 
similar form of expression is also found in the seventh verse of the 
forty-fifth Psalm. " Therefore, God, thy God, hath annointed thee 
with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." That the Spirit of 
God descended in a wonderful manner upon David, is evinced by 
the power he exhibited over wild beasts and the giant, Goliah ; and 
also his ability to always escape his enemies, all of which were 
correspondential of Christ the Anointed. In this sense, he was a 
man after God's own heart, — not yet freed from evil, for this 
could be effected only through the Humanity of the Lord ; hence, 
like others, he was overpowered by temptations, for the devils 
obsessing the human had not yet been conquered, neither could 
be bv anv finite being, for that was to be the work of God. 

These considerations will be sufficient to show us why David 
alone was allowed to speak of the Holy Spirit as connected with 
himself. The two other passages above referred to in Isaiah, are 
prophetic and have direct reference to the Lord in his Humanity. 
The chapter commences by the following interrogations : u Who 
is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ? 
this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of 
hi% strength ? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. * * * * 
But thev rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit : therefore he was 
turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them. Then he 
remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, Where 
is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his 
flock ? where is he that put his Holy Spirit within him ?" 

It will therefore be seen that the Holy Spirit, strictly speak- 
ing, is a principle belonging to the Gospel dispensation, and is in 
some way connected with the Lord's Humanity. There is evi- 
dently a wide difference between the Holy Spirit of the New 
Testament, and the Spirit of God in the Old. The Spirit of God 
communicated with man only through the intermediate agency of 
angels, for he had not yet formed a direct connection with man, in 
his corporeal condition, and no one could endure the glory of His 

* Matthew, 12:35-6. 



40 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

immediate presence, without the modifying influence of the material 
elements. So great was His glory that Moses said, " I exceedingly 
fear and quake," and if so much as a beast touched the mountain 
when He communicated through a cloud with Moses, it should be 
stoned or thrust through with a dart. As Jacob was journeying 
from Beersheba to Haram, he saw, while he slept, a ladder set 
upon the earth, the top of which reached to heaven, and the angels 
of God ascendincr and descending on it, but the Lord stood above 
it and said, "I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy Father, and 
the God of Isaac ; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give 
it, and to thy seed." I refer to this example to show the interme- 
diate agency which God used, antecedent to his incarnation, to 
communicate with men. Throughout the Old Testament we con- 
stantly meet with such expressions as " the Angel of the Lord," 
u the angel of God," " His angels," &c, as His messengers to man. 
But it is never said by any of the Old Testament writers, that the 
Holy Spirit spoke by them, or that Jehovah spoke to them by the 
Holy Spirit ; and that, to me, evidently for the reason that the 
Holy Ghost is the proceeding principle from the Lord's Humanity, 
which co*uld only be given subsequent to His glorification, or to 
the Human being made Divine. Our Lord's words are : " For 
if I go not away, the Comforter ivill not come to you ; but, if I 
depart, Itvill send Him to you" 

The order is, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. " God 
so loved the world that He sent His only-begotten Son." But the 
Son sends the Spirit ; u for if," says he, " 1 depart I will send the 
Comforter." Moreover, the Son came in the Father's name ; but 
the Holy Spirit, saith the Son, u which the Father shall send in my 
name." Thus it appears evident that the Son was the ultimative 
plane of the Divinity, and the Holy Spirit is the Proceeding from 
the Divine in the Son, — as the Father is the progenitor of and is 
in the Son, so is the Son the progenitor of and is in the Holy 
Ghost. 

The analogy of this principle is found in the constitution of man, 
for it was in this sense that he was made in the image of his Crea- 
tor. The soul is in the body, and the magnetic force from the 
body is in virtue of the soul, which sustains it. The soul does not 
act through the body but in and upon it, and the body acts/rom 
the soul, — the magnetic or dynamic force being the result of their 
reciprocal action. Psychological experiments clearly demonstrate 
that in virtue of the union of soul and body we are enabled to 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 41 

establish a magnetic sphere that controls the actions of the passive 
or willing subject. The soul is also the formative and controlling 
principle of the body, and inasmuch as the former acts in and 
directly upon the latter, it has a constant tendency to mould the 
body to its condition. The body becomes powerless as soon as the 
motive principle ceases to act upon it ; and the soul at the same 
time looses its ability to operate upon the external or ultimate plane 
of life. Here we have a miniature representative of the Trinity. 
The Father acting in and upon the Son — as the soul in and upon 
the body — from which the Holy Ghost proceeds.* " The Son 
can do nothing of Himself," but uses the power delegated to Him 
from the Father ; " for what things soever He doeth, these also 
doeth the Son likewise." " For as the Father raiseth up the dead, 
and quickeneth them ; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. 
For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment 
unto the Son ; that all men should honor the Son even as they 
honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not 
the Father which hath sent him." Every one recognizes the prin- 
ciple of honoring our visible presence as the means of honoring 
the soul which inhabits it ; and it appears to me to be in this sense 
that Christ claims the honor due to God. Christ was the bright- 
ness of God's glory and the express image of his person, and as 
we cannot hate the flesh of another without hating his personality, 
neither can we hate or reject Christ, the image, without hating 
and rejecting God. In beholding and loving the Humanity of the 
Son, we behold and love the Divinity of the Father, — one is in 
the other, from the marriage of ivMch proceeds the Holy Crhost. 
This marriage was not fully consummated until our Lord's Passion, 
when the flesh yielded its last resistance to the Divine. 

Keeping these considerations in view, we see why it was that 
the Apostle John says, that u the Holy Ghost was not yet given ; 
because that Jesus was not yet glorified."! The Lord had 
descended and taken upon Himself the seed of Abraham and all the 
temptations common to man in his apostate condition ; by which 
He formed a direct connection with every department of man's 
nature ; but still leaving the Will in perfect freedom to accept or 
reject Him. At the time of His baptism in Jordan, the Spirit of 
God descended in bodily shape upon Him, which now begins its 
work of regenerating the Human in order to prepare a way of 
Salvation. This was completed at the time of His Resurrection ; 
* John, 5 : 19. t John, 7 : 39. 



42 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the union between the Father and the Son, or the Hujnan and 
the Divine, being perfected at the time of His Passion. Up to 
this time, the Spirit of God operated upon man through angelic 
agency ; but now the connection having once been established 
between God and fallen man, the Proceeding Principle from the 
Divine to the Human, operates without any intermediate agency. 
The complete glorification of the Human could not take place until 
subsequent to our Lord's resurrection. Herein consisted the expe- 
diency of His departure in order that the Comforter (more prop- 
erly Helper) might come, bringing with Him the united qualities 
of the Father and Son, which adapted them to the necessities of 
man. Our Lord's own statements fully sustain the idea that the 
Holy Spirit is the common Spirit of the Father and of the Son : 
" But when the Comforter is come, whom T will send unto you 
from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proeeedeth from 
the Father, he shall testify of me."* Again : " He shall glorify 
me ; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."f 
The Holy Spirit thus proceeds from the Father, receives of and 
is sent by the Son. By saying, " which proeeedeth from the 
Father," he exhibited the Father as being the fountain of the 
Spirit ; and by saying, not, which shall proceed, but ivhich proeeed- 
eth, he exhibited, also, their sameness of nature, the community 
and inseparableness of their being, and the unity of -their persons ; 
for that which proeeedeth is not parted from that out of which it 
proceeds. 

It will be remembered that in the creation of man, God breath- 
ed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. 
So, likewise, after our Lord's resurrection, He breathed on his 
disciples and said unto them, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost." A 
new order of things now became established. Here, for the first 
time since man, through disobedience, lost his pristine purity, was 
there a full, complete, and direct connection between him and his 
God. New life and powers were now diffused into him. Sins were 
remitted or retained through the instrumentality of the obedient. 
Devils fled at their command, and disease lost its power over its 
victim whenever rebuked by the potentialized Apostles. The 
human race became new-created and restored to God in the unity 
of a spiritual kingdom. The Spirit which descended upon Christ 
at the time of his baptism, was now transmitted to the Apostles. 
It first came like a rushing mighty wind, filling the whole house 

* John, 15:26. t John, 16 : 14. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 43 

where they had collected for a private communion, and whiclyippear- 
ed to them like parted flames of fire that settled upon each, and 
enabled them to speak in every tongue under heaven. The report 
of this astounding phenomenon soon spread throughout the city, 
and drew together, among others, such strangers as happened to be 
sojourning there from every part of the world, who now became 
astonished at being addressed each in their own language by the 
hitherto unlearned Galileans ; and thousands in one day yielded 
their opposition to and became worshipers of their crucified but 
now risen Lord. 

In view of the foregoing considerations, the question naturally 
arises, wherein does the Spirit of Jehovah of the Old Testament 
differ from the Holy Spirit of the New ? No theological question 
has been less understood by the Christian world, or given rise to 
greater errors and diversity of opinions than this. Throughout 
the Old Testament it is stated that u the Spirit of the Lord came 
unto me saying," or, " the Spirit of God came unto him," &c. ; 
but John, who was directly taught by our Lord, says that the 
" Holy Spirit was not yet given" and offers as a reason that Jesus 
was not yet glorified ; and Christ Himself makes the coming of the 
Paraclete dependent upon His departure from the earth. In this 
question is involved the great fundamental principles of both the 
Law and the Gospel, which, when properly understood, will set at 
rest the nature of the Trinity, and the relation of the Bible to 
mankind. But here let us first take the shoes from off our feet, 
and all arrogance from our hearts, for the ground on which we 
tread is Holy, and so forget not Uzza who indiscretly put forth 
his hand to stay the ark. 

The Spirit of the Lord in the Old Testament, was the Spirit of 
WISDOM, which inexorably required obedience to its behests ; 
and dictated Laws based upon retributive justice. Moses, whom 
the Lord met face to face, was the earthly representative of this 
principle, who having laid his hands upon the head of Joshua, 
transmitted the conditions of its receptivity to the Patriarchal suc- 
cession ; all of whom were profound in Wisdom in proportion to 
their fidelity to God. These were stern, uncompromising men with- 
out the feminine characteristics, who spake as they were moved 
upon by the Spirit of Jehovah, and who became the avenues of 
Spiritual Wisdom to mankind. Neither Wisdom nor the Law 
which proceeded from it, had any saving qualities ; but was only 
the illuminating principle by which was the knowledge of sin ; but 



44 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

for which it could not atone. " Now we know, that what things 
soever the Law saith, it saith to them who are under the Law ; 
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become 
guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the Law, there 
shall no flesh be justified in his sight."* For this cause the scape- 
goats and daily sacrifice were instituted as memorable substitutes 
for the Paschal Lamb, who was to introduce another principle 
which should become a help-meet to the Law, for under the Law 
all the world were guilty before God; but the Gospel of Christ is 
alone the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. 

In virtue of the union of the Divinity with the Humanity in 
the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of the New 
Testament, is the Spirit of LOVE united to Wisdom, which con- 
strains us to yield fidelity to the Law,f offers salvation to the 
willing and obedient, J shows us things to come,§ and is the princi- 
ple by which faith ultimates itself in acts.|| The word " Holy " 
belongs to the Humanity of our Lord, or to the Son, and not to 
the Father. This word properly means ivhole, entire, complete, or 
perfect in a moral sense. Hence, whatever is complete, pure in 
heart, temper, or disposition, and is consecrated or set apart to a 
sacred use, is Holy ; thus, the holy Sabbath, the holy oil, the holy 
vessels, a holy nation, the holy temple, holy men of old, holy 
angels, holy priesthood, &c, &c, but Jehovah could not be set 
apart to sacred use, for he was the Divinity itself. Thus we have 
the Holy Ghost from the Son by the Father, embracing the Alpha 
and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Human and the 
Divine, forming a complete circle containing Divine Esse and hu- 
manity, which word could never be said to belong to Jehovah, 
until our Lord's advent and the glorification of His Human. 
Therefore, the real distinction between the Spirit of Jehovah of 
the Old Testament, and the Holy Spirit of the New, is, that in the 
former it ivas the Spirit of the Divine alone, while in the latter it is 
the Spirit of the Divine conjoined to the Human, by ivhich alone 
Salvation could be effected. 

From these considerations it will be seen, that the Holy Ghost is 
from the Son by the Father, as the magnetic sphere of man is from 
the body by the soul, forming three discrete degrees, viz. : Will, 
Operation, and Proceeding. The intensity of the magnetic force 

*Komans 8 : 20-1. t "For the Love of Christ constraineth us," — 2 Cor. 5 :14. 
\ " If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat of the good of the land/' — Isa. 1 : 19. 
§ John 16 : 13. || " But faith which works by love,"— Gal. 5:6. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 45 

of man depends upon the perfection of his physical organism, which 
is acted upon by the soul, — the body being the ultimative plane of 
the spirit's operations, connecting it with the natural world. The 
true normal condition of man was to consciously live in both the 
spiritual and natural worlds, — to ultimate spiritual thoughts upon 
the external plane. But sin broke this connection, and became an 
insulator between the Divine-Spiritual and Natural, and man was 
driven out into the external plane of life, and a flaming sword was 
instituted to guard the more sacred parts of his nature from sacri- 
legious desecrations. To return to it in the self-hood is to carry 
disorder into the spirit, or from the plane of the body into that of 
the soul, which God very mercifully and wisely prevented him 
from doing, lest he should have desecrated the heavens by sin. 
The Lord, therefore, descended into the plane of the body to first 
establish the work of regeneration upon the outward plane of life 
as the basis of the interior, and graciously permits us to draw from 
His perfected Humanity, as the branch from the vine ; for our 
humanity had become bruised and full of putrifying sores, and 
wholly unfit for a spiritual foundation ; therefore, our spiritual 
growth depends upon our abiding in Him and His Word in us. 

Through our Lord's Humanity He became directly connected 
with all mankind on the material plane of life, as He previously was 
with the heavens upon the spiritual, so that now all who become 
connected with Him through the medium of the affections become 
the ultimate receptacles of the divine forces. In this, it will be 
seen how we become the temples of the living God, and why He 
destroys those who defile this temple, for God cannot live in a defiled 
connection ; and to live without Him is to live in condemnation, or 
banishment from His presence. Hence, we see the necessity of 
keeping His commandments, that we may abide in His love, with- 
out which there is no possibility of Salvation ; and this because 
the basis upon which it is founded in the individual is lost, having 
been swept away by the overflowing scourge of sin ; so that Christ 
is now the only foundation upon which we can build a spiritual 
superstructure.* Herein lies the necessity, of His Humanity ; 
which becomes the basis, to all who reverently connect themselves 
with it, upon which they can stand panoplied with the Divine 
sphere, nourished from the affections of the Divine-Natural or 
Human, and illuminated by the wisdom of the Divine-Spiritual or 

* " For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 

— 1 Corinthians, 3 : 2. 
7 



46 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Supreme Divinity ; thus, like the tree within the atmosphere, sus- 
tained by the elements of the earth rendered active by the influ- 
ence of the sun. Hence we are called upon " to yield ourselves 
unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and our mem- 
bers as instruments of righteousness to Him." In so doing, 
sin ceases to have dominion over us, and by the inflowing of the 
Divine, our bodies become purified and made fit temples for the 
Holy Ghost. To continue in sin, is to repel the Holy Spirit, and 
for it to withdraw is the destruction of the temple ; and to 
destroy the temple before the spirit is matured, is to sever the 
branch from the vine, that it wither. Therefore, to expect salva- 
tion without reformation, is equally as irrational as to attempt to 
erect an edifice in the air without the necessary foundation. The 
perfection of this foundation in the individual, depends upon the 
perfection of his life in Christ ; for in that degree only does he 
become engrafted into Him and partake of His righteousness. To 
build upon the sands of falsities is to be overthrown by the floods 
of Divine truth ; and any righteousness which we may attempt to 
establish of ourselves without faith in and obedience to Christ, is, 
as Isaiah has well said, " as filthy rags," that can avail us nothing 
on the spiritual plane. 

Keeping these principles in view, we see why it was necessary 
for our Lord to descend into the plane of the Human in order to 
effect our salvation ; for by so doing, He has provided a sanctified 
way through His own Humanity, by which we can return to Par- 
adise, being washed from our sins by His blood. But if we return 
to the spiritual plane ichile in the self-hood, we carry our sins with 
us and immortalize them upon the plane of the spirit ; for, it will 
be remembered that Christ is a Saviour in time and not in eternity ; 
otherwise there would have been no necessity of His having 
descended to perfect the human in order to lay a proper foundation 
for the spiritual. There can be no communication between man 
and the Divine only through Christ ; no other way having ever 
been provided, for there is no other divine humanity. As the 
body is the correlative of the spirit, so the Divine-Human is the 
correlative of the Supreme Divinity ; and it is only through the 
Divine-Human that the Supreme Divinity can maintain an imme- 
diate relation with mankind. 

The temple of Solomon was typical of man * Aside from the 
* Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth 
in you ? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy ; for the 
temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.— 1 Cor. 3 : 16-17. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 47 

Gentile court which corresponded to the evils of the world, it con- 
tained three discrete degrees, viz.: the court of the Children of 
Israel, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. These degrees 
were not separated by solid and impenetrable walls, but by vails 
which shut out one degree from another ; and while the priests 
went always into the first tabernacle ; accomplishing the service of 
God, the high priest alone was permitted to enter the Holiest of 
all, and that only once a vear. Our Lord became both King and 
Priest for us, and instead of administering in the representative 
temple made with hands, He took upon Himself a temple in per- 
fect keeping with our own, save their sinful marks, and sustains 
the Priestly office in every department of our natures, while at 
the same time, in His Divinity, He is King of Kings and Lord 
of Lords. The Humanity which He took upon Himself from the 
virgin Mary, had its correspondence in the court of the children of 
Israel, surrounded by an unbelieving world ; the " Holy Thing" 
which was born of her through the instrumentality of the Holy 
Ghost coming upon her, and the power of the Highest overshadow- 
ing her, had its correspondence in the Holy Place ; and the Divine 
Humanity which was born from eternity had its correspondence in 
the Holy of Holies. He commenced His work in the outer court 
which had become a den of thieves, scourged and drove out the 
devils which carried on. an unlawful gain, and thus first cleansed 
the outward temple, after which He commenced to repair the 
injuries which the invaders had done ; the sick and dying were 
healed, the obsessed were relieved, the blind were made to see, 
the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and at last the dead were raised 
to newness of life ; and when he had finished the progressive work 
of repairing these human dilapidated temples, while upon the 
cross, He seizes the vail that separated us from the Holy of Holies — 
the human from the divine — and rent it from top to botton, thus 
literally declaring the symbol to be no longer needed, for through 
His flesh the way was now opened to heaven. As in the Jewish 
temple there was no way of ingress into the Holy of Holies only 
through the vail, so there is no way to heaven only through the 
Humanity of the Lord. This is the u new and living way, which 
he has consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say, His 
flesh."* To attempt to climb up some other way, is to become a 
thief and a robber, which destroys the first conditions of salvation. 

I am aware of the extreme skepticism of the age upon the sub- 

* Hebrews 10 : 20. 



48 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

ject here under consideration. But to me, one of two things is 
certain ; that either Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh, 
who came to save the world from the wretched condition into 
which it had been plunged by sin, or else all the Biblical writers 
from Moses to John the Revelator, were successfully and con- 
jointedly engaged in the most stupendous fraud ever attempted 
upon mankind ; all of which culminated in Jesus as the grand 
actor, the star in the most ridiculous and blasphemous tragedy that 
was ever enacted on earth. Everything which goes to make up 
the Christian Scriptures converge in him. The patriarchs and 
prophets for two thousand years, all pointed forward to Him ; and 
the apostles, and the whole christian world, for eighteen centuries, 
have pointed back to him as the Redeemer of mankind, and are 
still looking forward to yet greater triumphs of His Reign, — He 
is the pivot of the world's history, the crowning and governing 
Spirit of all time. Born to poverty and without social influence, 
unassuming to the last degree, He rose to a height of moral excel- 
lence, even in His own day, and among His own people, which no 
other has ever attained ; and tens of thousands were compelled 
against their prejudices to acknowledge Him the Son of God ; 
until, at last, the rulers of the nation, jealous of His glory, and 
inspired from the pit, felt themselves called upon to put him to an 
ignominious death, lest all people should believe on him, and they 
should lose their power and influence over the nation. 



The Word of the Lord. 

I have said that the Lord's Humanity is the medium of our 
conjunction with the Divine ; it now remains to briefly consider 
how this is effected since His visible departure from the earth. 

John says that, " in the beginning the Word was with God and 
the Word was God." That the Lord in His Humanity is here 
meant by the Word is clearly evident, for it " became flesh and 
d»welt among us," manifesting its glory to the outward senses of 
mankind.* If it be understood that the Divine-Human is meant 
by the Word, then as corollary to this, is meant also every truth 
which relates to Him and is from Him, in His Kingdom in the 
heavens, and in his church on the earth ; hence, it is said, that 
"in Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light 
appeareth in darkness." Truth, in a divine sense, means a reve- 



THE WORD OF THE LORD. 49 

lation ; therefore, by the Word is meant all revelation, thus con- 
stituting the Word itself, or the Holy Scriptures. The Lord is 
called the Word because it signifies divine truth proceeding from 
Him. Hence, the Word is an immutable principle, and having 
existed eternally in the bosom of Jehovah, it has been given to us 
by His inspiration, through holy men, who spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Spirit, and now exists as a congeries of Divine 
ideas in folio form, and as the only conjunctive medium between 
man and the Divine Humanity. And without the fear of suc- 
cessful contradiction, I unhesitatingly say, that there is not a ray 
of moral illumination outside of it. The only light enjoyed by 
those who reject it, is borrowed from those who receive it ; as the 
moon borrows her rays from the earth, which receives them direct 
from the sun.* Every ray which the infidel has is in virtue of 
his revolving round the Christian, who, through the Holy Word, 
is in immediate relation with the Lord. In this way, the disciples 
are the light of the world ; and their moral qualities are the saving 
principles, or salt of the earth. 

At the time of our Lord's sojourn on earth in His visible 
Humanity and for a long period subsequent, there were but few 
copies of the Holy Word extant. They ultimately became numer- 
ous through the instrumentality of printing ; but then only in 
ratio to the increase of the Protestant faith. The Catholic Church 
withheld the Bible from the masses, and the priests sought to insti- 
tute themselves as the connecting mediums between the Lord and 
the lay members of the church. Satan, who was the chief inspirer 
of their faith, evidently saw that the Word contained a force which 
he could not withstand ; and so sought to keep it from as many as 
possible, that he might possess a more immediate and powerful 
influence over them. The popes and cardinals themselves, in 
common with the Protestant church, regarded it simply as the 
teachings of God through inspired men ; not having the least con- 
sciousness of the fact, that it is the visible and actual medium of 
the Divine presence, through which alone communication is main- 
tained between heaven and earth. 

It has been said that the art of writing and printing was really 
provided by the Lord for the sake of multiplying copies of the 
Word, that each might possess one for his own use, through which 
he could constantly maintain an association with God. It contains 
every thing conducive to salvation and eternal life, and is the only 

* The principle here alluded to will be demonstrated in a future chapter. 



50 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

avenue through which the principles of salvation can flow to man. 
Its interiors are of such a nature, that whatever is spoken of the 
church is spoken also of each individual of the church, who, unless 
he contained the principles of the church within himself, could not 
be a part of the church militant, nor of the church triumphant ; 
as he who is not a temple of the Lord, cannot be what is signified 
by the temple, which is the church and heaven ; for which reason 
the most ancient church was called man in the singular number. 

In view of these considerations, it is not difficult to see why it is 
that individuals have ever grown into a disbelief of the sanctity of 
the Word, in the degree in which their lives have run counter to 
its precepts. The mists which arise from misconduct and selfish 
purposes, effectually obscures the divine light with which the Word 
is illuminated ; thus verifying the statement that, " the darkness 
comprehendeth it not." It is only the pure in heart who see God, 
for evils render a man positive to the divine influence, which 
effectually destroys the condition of all spiritual illumination. 
Light, as will hereafter be more fully shown, is the result of the 
conjoint action of two spheres ; but one must sustain a negative 
relation to the other ; and as God cannot become negative to man, 
man must become negative to God in order to effect anything like 
a divine illumination of his understanding. It is through the Holy 
Word that the properties of this light is derived. 

Whoever reads these pages forms a connection with their Author 
in exact ratio to their receptivity of the doctrines here inculcated. 
Love is the only conjunctive principle ; so that in order for one 
individual to enter into the sphere of another, it is necessary that 
there should be some reciprocal relation between them. The 
expressions of every individual are so pervaded by the sphere of 
their author, that a sensitive person will readily discover the quality 
of the spirit, regardless of the mode of expression which gave 
them utterance. Psychometric reading, of which there are numer- 
ous examples, is the result of this law. Physical contact is essential 
to the transmission of the magnetic forces ; but the spiritual forces 
knowing neither time nor space ; but only states or conditions, is 
readily transferred through the medium of confidence and affec- 
tion. Distance has no power to intercept the influence of the 
meditations of lovers upon each other ; but contact often produces 
a magnetic control in opp.osition to the discression. Neither time 
nor space can so destroy the psychological influence of an epistle 
that the real character of its author and the peculiar emotions 



THE WORD OF THE LORD. 51 

under which it was written, may not be accurately determined cen- 
turies afterwards, by almost any one who is in an extreme negative 
state, — the susceptibility being in the ratio of the negativeness of 
the individual. 

A proper understanding of the law here set forth, will give us 
some idea how we become connected with the Lord through the 
medium of His Word. It being pervaded by the Divine sphere, 
through it the reader comes into an immediate conjunction with 
its Infinite Author ; but this conjunction does not necessarily 
imply a reception. Oil may be in conjunction with water ; but it 
is not receptive of it. The state of receptivity is one of love, and 
love strictly speaking, whether on the plane of mind or matter, 
invariably seeks to appropriate to itself. In Goc^ it is Infinite Love 
seeking to appropriate Infinite Wisdom ; in angels, it seeks to 
appropriate every Divine principle ; in devils, every natural prin- 
ciple. Heaven exists by the subordination, through the freedom 
of the human will, of the Natural to the Divine ; hell, by the 
subordination of the Divine to the Natural. Herein consists the 
infinite contrast between the two. In order, therefore, to read the 
Word with any benefit, there must be a love for the spirit which 
pervades it. This love renders the reader receptive of the Infinite 
Love, which becomes within him the reactive and sustaining prin- 
ciple of its correlative, wisdom ; (for there can be no true wisdom 
without Divine Love) ; so that the Word actually imparts to the 
receptive reader, Divine qualities which can be obtained in no 
other way. Every doubt of its sacredness becomes an insulator 
between the reader and its Author; and to peruse its pages with- 
out any love to the Lord, is to become positive to and consequently 
non-receptive of its sphere. 

But its doctrines being the elements of purity itself, none but 
the vicious can possibly fail to be attracted by it ; and in the degree 
in which love and confidence are bestowed, do they become one 
with it.- Hence it is, that the Word being from the Lord, and the 
medium of conjunction with Him, is called " a fountain" ;* "a 
fountain of living waters" f u a fountain of salvation"'^ " a 
river of living water "^ &c. ; and it is said that "the Lamb, which 
is in the midst of the throne, feeds them at the living fountain of 
waters " ;|| not to mention other passages, where the Word is also 
called the Sanctuary and the Tabernacle, wherein the Lord 

* Zech. 13 : 1 . t Jerem. 2 : 13 ; 17 : 13 ; 31 : 9. J Isaiah, 12 : 3. § Rev. 21 : 1 ; 
117 : 17. 



52 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

dwells with man. Being thus pervaded by the Divine Spirit and 
one with it, it conjoins man with the Lord and opens heaven ; so 
that, like Jacob, he may see angels ascending and descending, and 
hold communion with God. It being the fountain of Infinite Love 
and Wisdom to man, sustained by the Infinite" God Himself, man 
receives all of his spiritual life from it ; and they who do not drink 
at this fountain, by faith and appropriation, have no life in them. 
Only such as read it with a design to draw Divine truths from it, 
and to apply them to the regulation of their lives, can ever be 
really benefitted by its sacred principles. It is a savior of life 
unto life to all who love it and comply with its holy precepts ; but 
a savior of death unto death to those who do not, or who peruse 
its pages from worldly considerations. 

" Where men do not know," says Swendenborg, " that there is 
a certain spiritual sense contained in the Word, as the soul in the 
body, they must of necessity judge of the Word only from its* 
literal sense, when, nevertheless its literal sense is like a casket 
containing precious jewels, which jewels themselves belong to the 
spiritual sense. If, therefore, this internal sense be unknown, 
mankind cannot possibly judge of the Divine sanctity of the Word 
but as they would judge of a precious stone by the matrix which 
covers and contains it, and which, in many cases, appears like an 
ordinary stone ; or as they would judge of diamonds, rubies, sar- 
donixes, oriental topazes, &c, by the outward cabinet of jasper, 
lapis lazuli, amianthus, or agate, in which they are contained, and 
arranged in order. While the contents of the cabinet are unknown, 
it is not to be wondered at, if the cabinet itself be estimated only 
according to the value of the visible materials of w T hich it is made ; 
and this is exactly the case with the Word as to its literal sense. 
Lest, however, mankind should remain any longer in doubt con- 
cerning the divinity and most adorable sanctity of the Word, it 
has pleased the Lord to reveal to me its internal sense, which in 
its essence is spiritual, and which is, to the external sense, which 
is natural, what the soul is to the body. This internal sense is the 
spirit which gives life to the letter ; therefore, this sense will evince 
the divinity and sanctity of the Word, and may convince even the 
natural man, if he is in a disposition to be convinced."* 

The irreligious mind has repeatedly affirmed that the present 
age has so far outgrown the teachings of the Bible, that it ought 
to be discarded as an obsolete book, pregnant only with the igno- 

* True Christian Religion, page 192. 



THE WORD OF THE LORD. 53 

nnce and evils of the past ; without affording any high order of 
instruction adapted to the present condition of society, — that 
though it may have been of use to the age in which it was written, 
it is now superseded by a higher class of truths and a more pro- 
found philosophy. No folly can be greater, no age has ever more 
needed its benign teachings ; by none were they ever less under- 
stood. If its precepts are of God, they must of necessity be 
based upon those fundamental principles which can never be tran- 
scended bv either men or angels ; so that to possess a degree of 
wisdom that will supersede them, is impossible. Could we inquire 
of those who, in virtue of having appropriated its saving truths to 
their own lives, have passed into the beautitudes of heaven : Do 
you still need the aid of the Holy Word to enlighten your glorious 
pathway ? They would answer : We know its truths, but as yet we 
comprehend only its rudimental lessons, which ever unfold them- 
selves to us in the ratio as we advance in goodness. Pass on, and 
inquire of the angel whose voice, like the chime of cathedral bells, 
has for millions of years reverberated in the dome of heaven, if he 
still studies its sacred pages ; and he would answer : All of its 
highth and depth, its length and breadth, as yet I have failed to 
fully comprehend ; but it is the light to my pathway and the medium 
of my inspiration. Still pursue your journey and press your inquiry 
to the Seraph who mirrors in most radiant beauty, the image of 
his God, and the lyric melodies of whose voice ravishes^the ear 
with more than orchestral peals, but the iEolian sweetness of 
which falls as gentle as the evening dew and kisses the cheek of 
the Redeemer : Do you yet fully comprehend the beauty, the 
grandeur, and the significance of the Holy Word of God ? With 
awe-sticken gaze and drooping brow, radiant with the intelligence 
of heaven, he would answer : The Spirit of its Divine Author 
pervades its pages, so that like Him, it is infinite, the u Alpha and 
Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last ;" and 
stratas of uncomprehended truths are yet embosomed within its 
celestial significance. Its inspiration is of God ; its kingly seal the 
blood of the Saviour; its interpreter the Holy Spirit, — an abyss 
of truths from which all the wisdom of the angels and men is 
derived. And when the sun shall grow dim with age, and the 
milky-way shall be no more, it will live, and live forever as the 
inspirer of angels and the sun of the moral universe. 

Every Christian mind recognizes the fact, that by the Word is 
meant the Lord ; or that His Human principle is the Word;, for 



54 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

it is said that the "Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."* 
His Human principle was equally divine with His divine principle 
itself, which assumed the human ; consequently the Word itself 
is divine, and was given as much for angels in heaven as for men 
on earth ; " for, the Word was with God and the Word was God. 
The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made 
by Him ; and without Him was not anything made that was made. 
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." The light 
of men is their affection and understanding ; and the affection and 
understanding is the life of the individual. If, therefore, the 
affection and understanding be divine, their life is a divine life ; 
otherwise it is infernal. The divine proceeding which is here 
especially understood by the Word, evidently appears in heaven 
as the light by which the angels not only see, but also think and 
understand, and according to the reception of which they are wise. 
We know such to be the case in this world ; and as these are fun- 
damental and eternal principles, the evidence is indubitable that it 
is so in the next. This light proceeding from the Lord is life 
itself, which not only illuminates the understanding, as the sun of 
the world does the eye, but also vivifies it according to reception, 
and which, when received into the life, is called u the light of life." 
« Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the 
world ; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall 
have the light of life."f It is also denominated the bread of life 
as in these words : " For the bread of God is He which came down 
from heaven and giveth life unto the world ; I am the living bread 
which came down from heaven. "J The bread of God and the 
living bread which came down from heaven, and the life in Him 
which became the light in man, is the great Fountain from which 
all derive their being ; and the stream might as well say that it has 
no further need of the fountain from which it flows, as men or 
angels to think that they can ever outgrow the Holy Word of 
God, or maintain an orderly existence without it, — it is the imme- 
diate source of all rationality, of all morality, of all inspiration, 
and without which the world would rapidly recede into the most 
terrible pagan darkness and inhuman degradation. 

The Word, in itself, is divine, for it is the doctrine of divine 

truth, and what is divine in itself may become divine in man if he 

applies it to his life. It becomes divine in man inasmuch as the 

Lord can therein have his abode with man ; for He expressly says : 

* John 1. f John 8:12. $ John 6 : 33-51 . 



THE WORD OF THE LORD. 55 

" If a man love me he will keep my words ; and my Father will 
love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with 
him."* Again : " The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit 
and are life. Thou hast the words of eternal life."f " All things 
which are in the Word are divine, and they are so, because they 
contain within them a spiritual sense ; and because by that sense 
they communicate with heaven, and with the angels there, where- 
fore, when man possesses knowledge derived from the Word, and 
applies them to his life, he has communication through these with 
heaven, and by that communication he becomes spiritual; for man 
becomes spiritual inasmuch as he is in similar or correspondent 
truths with the angels of heaven. "J Again, the Word signifies 
divine truth, and thus the Lord is called the Word. The Lord is 
also called " light, which lighteneth every man that cometh into 
the world," because divine truth is the light of heaven ; and He 
is also called the life, because every thing that lives, lives from that 
light, as all things on earth live from the light and heat of the 
sun ; and as the life of angels consists in love, intelligence, and 
wisdom ; they derive this from the Lord, for there is no other 
source of life ; hence, it may be seen how it is to be understood 
that u God was the Word, that in Him was life, and that the life 
was the light of men." 

By rejecting the Lord in His Divine Humanity, we deprive 
ourselves of the means of a conjunction with Him, and thereby of 
the very spirit necessary to a proper understanding of His Word. 
But when, through faith, we acknowledge him as " God manifest 
in the flesh," we become allied to Him through that faith, and this 
opens up a way through which He can flow into our understand- 
ings and enable His spirit to lead us in the way of all truth. " If 
it be assumed as doctrine, or acknowledged, that the Lord is one 
with the Father, and that His human principle is divine from the 
divinty in Himself, light will be seen in every particular of the 
Word ; for what is assumed as doctrine, and acknowledged from 
doctrine, appears in light when the Word is read. The Lord, 
also, from whom all light proceeds, and who has all power, 
enlicrhtens those who are in this acknowledgment. But, on the 
other hand, if it be assumed and acknowledged as doctrine, that 

* John 14 : 23. t John 6 : 63-69. t These truths can exist only as the counter- 
parts to good, for without good there can be no truth, and these goods and truths 
are ever in conjunction with the Lord, as He is goodness and truth itself. On the 
same principle the evil and false are in conjunction with hell, as hell is evil and 
falsity itself, and is the source from which all evil and falsity is derived. 



56 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the divine principle of the Father is another principle separate 
from that of the Lord, nothing will be seen in light in the Word ; 
inasmuch as the man who is in that doctrine turns himself from 
one divine being to another, and from the divinity of the Lord, 
which he may see, which is affected by thought and faith, to a 
divinity which he cannot see, for the Lord says : " Ye have never 
heard His (the Father's) voice at any time, nor seen His form,"* 
" and to believe in and love a divine being, which cannot be 
thought of under any form, is impossible." 

It is therefore evident that the Humanity of the Lord was the 
visible connecting medium with the human race, an.d the onlv 
means we have of laying hold of eternal life. This Humanity is 
embodied in the Word, through which " God is reconciling the 
world unto Himself." In other words, the Bible is the external 
embodiment of the Lord's divine forces, and they who reject it 
reject its Author, and thus the Lord ; and they who reject the 
Lord, sever themselves from any saving connection with Him. 
*' Whoso despiseth the Word shall be destroyed,"! an( ^ au " despise 
it who do not appropriate its truths and goods to themselves by con- 
forming their lives to them ; for what we truly love we seek to 
connect with our own being. Hence we cannot love the Word 
nor the Lord without seeking to conform ourselves to His holy 
precepts. " If a man love me, he will keep my words." J 

We are informed that " he that doubteth is damned," not by 
any arbitrary or vindictive feeling on the part of God ; but in vir- 
tue of the condition of the individual ; for, faith growing out of 
love is the conjunctive principle with the Divine, without which it 
is impossible to please God. On the other hand, disbelief is a con- 
junctive principle with evil ; and to be conjoined to evil, is to be 
condemned ; not by the Lord, but by the conditions, which the 
evil doer has voluntarily taken upon himself; for " unto them that 
are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure ; but even their mind 
and conscience is defiled"*) ; and God has so arranged the constitu- 
tion of man, that evil, in whatever form it may exist, is sure to 
react upon the evil doer. It was a Greek proverb, that u curses, 
like chickens, go home to roost " ; the condition of cursing is the 
condition of being cursed ; for whoever wishes ill to another, that 
wish becomes receptive of those forces which are sure to ciirse 
himself. The wish conjoins the individual to a cursing influence, 
and it is impossible for one to connect himself with any spiritual 

* John, 5 : 37; 1 : 18. t Proverbs, 13 : 13. J John 14 : 23. § Tit. 1 : 15. 



THE WORD OF THE LORD. 57 

force cither good or bad, without its working in him its own legiti- 
mate result. Hence, every malignant attempt to injure another, 
whether in desire or act, forms the conditions in the individual, by 
which he himself becomes injured. The evil connects him with 
hell, and it is he, not the person whom he would injure, into which 
hell flows ; and having hell within him, it will produce its own 
legitimate effects. " Cursed is every one that curseth thee, and 
blessed be every one that blesseth thee."* " As he loved cursing, 
so let it come unto him : as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be 
far from him. As he clothed himself with cursing as with a gar- 
ment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his 
bones."f The Scriptures here designate the law without in any 
way invoking the anathema. 

It is clearly evident that a saving faith is to believe in the Lord 
God, the Saviour Jesus Christ, who is revealed to us through the 
medium of His Holy Word, because, in so doing, we direct our 
attention to a visible object, in which is a divine principle connect- 
ing us with the invisible God. In this order we have the objective 
printed Word containing the divine magnetic sphere, directing us 
to Jesus Christ as the Divine-Human, in whom dwells all the ful- 
ness of the Godhead bodily, — thus making perfect the chain of 
religious faith. To reject the Bible is to reject the first principles 
of salvation, — is to sever the link which connects directly with 
humanity ; and to ignore Jesus Christ as the Divine-Human, is to 
reject the second principle, or the medium of conjunction between 
God and the Word. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlast- 
ing life, and he that believeth not on the Son will not see life, but 
the wrath of God abideth on him." J " Search the Scriptures ; 
for in them ye think ye have eternal life ; and they are they which 
testify of me."§ The two form a complete connection between 
Man and the Supreme Divinity. 

But it is frequently affirmed that belief is the result of evidence 
which the mind may deem conclusive, hence not a voluntary act ; 
consequently one cannot believe what is not sustained by a suf- 
ficient amount of evidence. This is true of mere belief; but there 
is a wide difference between faithand belief; one is a fundamental 
Christian principle ; the other, human credulity based upon verbal 
or phenomenal evidence. A Christian faith is the correlative of 
charity, and grows out of a proper relation between man and God. 
Real charity consists in a faithful discharge of every moral obliga- 

* Gen. 27 : 29. t Psalms, 109 : 17, 18. J John, 3 : 36. § John, 5 : 39. 



58 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

tion from a religious motive ; and all persons, from the freedom of 
their will, can govern their motive. But there can be no real 
charity without faith ; for being correlatives, neither can exist in 
the individual without the other. Faith is derived directly from 
the Lord ; but charity must exist as the ground or receptacle into 
which faith can flow ; and it is the privilege of every one to do 
good and to act uprightly ; and so far as this is done, faith is the 
legitimate and inevitable result. " He that doeth the works shall 
know of the doctrine." Faith and Charity, like Goodness and 
Truth, sustain the relation of faculty and capacity, or seed and soil 
to each other, so that one has no saving properties without the 
other. Faith is spiritually dead being alone ; and charity has no 
actual existence without faith. True, a man may perform good 
deeds without faith, but not from a love to the Lord, for he must 
first believe before he can love ; and what is not done from a love 
to the Lord, is not done from any divine motive ; consequently, 
having nothing of religion in it, it is not charity, hence has no 
saving quality. 

The more critical the observation, the more certain we become 
that the strength of faith uniformly keeps pace with the quality of 
the life, so that charity is really greater than either faith or hope. 
Whoever, on the one hand, loves the evil and the false, whether his 
outward life be in keeping with these loves or not, is sure to be 
without faith in the sanctity of the Holy Word, and the divinity of 
the Lord Jesus Christ ; and on the other, whoever loves goodness 
and truth, though he may often stray from the path of his own appro- 
val, is sure to be blessed with more or less faith in those principles 
which connect him with God. In fact, it is impossible for him to 
love goodness and truth without, at the same time, being so con- 
nected with the Divine Being as to be absorbent of His influence ; 
for there is ever an indesoluble connection between principles of a 
corresponding nature. To flee from God is to flee from His con- 
ditions by loving what is adverse to His precepts ; and to avoid 
perdition we must overcome the elements of perdition within our- 
selves. Within the individual is his own heaven or hell ; so that 
when he departs this life, he joins in association with others like 
himself. A good man would enjoy far more even in hell, than a 
devil in heaven ; for each has within himself the conditions of his 
own happiness or misery, and no place can rob the one nor relieve 
the other. 



THE WORD OF THE LORD. 59 

" If ye would enter into life keep the commandments," for, 
whoever from a religious motive, incorporates these into his daily 
life, incorporates the Divine principle into his own constitution ; 
and so far as this is effected, it becomes a bulwark against every 
disorderly and disintegrating influence, — influences from which 
spring all of our misfortunes, both here and hereafter. But these 
commandments are found, in a definite form, only in the Holy 
Word ; and so far from our reading them in Nature, the unregene- 
rated impulses constantly and strongly tend in an opposite direction. 
It requires a daily martyrdom of the flesh in order to become 
delivered from our hereditary and acquired evils. And so effect- 
ually do they blur and befog the moral perceptions, that without 
the guidance of the Word, no mortal being could grope his way 
to heaven. Yea, there would be nothing to teach him that his 
impulses should not have free scope and unrestrained action ; and 
thus, day by day, more and still more conjoined to evil, every 
ray of light would become obliterated, and every moral perception 
lost ; until at last, Nature itself, would become so diseased by the 
constant influx through man, that it could bring forth naught 
but the most hideous deformities ; while man himself would live 
in the most degraded and miserable condition in this life, only to 
be continued in the next. But with the Bible in our hands, we 
have an unerring chart and compass by which we can safely cross 
the ocean of life, steer clear of every danger, and finally safely 
moor in the port of Heaven. Disguise the fact as we may, it is 
the great reservoir of all moral life and spiritual immortality ; the 
only conjunctive medium between heaven and earth — the imme- 
diate source of all light, life, and truth. From it, through the 
medium of its votaries, the infidel and the heathen world draw 
their feeble illumination. In this sense its disciples, in all ages, 
"are the light of the world and the salt of the earth," — they are 
the mediums to the rest of mankind, of all Faith and Charity, 
of all Love and Wisdom. 

Moreover it is a covenant between God and Man ; and a cove- 
nant implies an agreement, and an agreement conjoins the parties. 
Whoever enters into this covenant is morally bound to discharge 
his part of the obligation. God, on His part, has laid down the 
conditions, not only of a relationship, but of heirship, a relation- 
ship by which we can become His children, and an heirship by 
which we can inherit His glorious immortality. And the man 
who accepts of these proffered conditions is more sure of the 



60 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

rewards of their beautitudes, than lie is of the rising and setting 
of to-morrow's sun. For were they withheld from a single indi- 
vidual, heaven itself would be destroyed, its throne impeached of 
falsehood and injustice, which would sink it into inevitable and 
irretrievable ruin. But whoever refuses to enter into this cove- 
nant and to maintain its moral obligations, rejects the Holy Word, 
rejects the Divine Humanity, rejects the Supreme Divinity, and 
rejects Heaven. Yea, more, he accepts of hell and all its conse- 
quences. In the one case, he voluntarily weds himself to all there 
is of good ; in the other, to all there is of evil. And whatever he 
weds himself to, he becomes a part of, so that abstractly, he is 
neither sent to heaven nor hell ; but has either heaven or hell 
incorporated in his own individuality. The terrible and impassable 
gulf between the two is one of state rather than of distance ; a 
state which (as will hereafter be shown) is eternally fixed during 
mundane life.* 

Man's sinfulness is the only hindrance to his proper understand- 
ing of the Scriptures. Divine truths cannot bear fruit upon an 
unregenerated soil. Whoever would comprehend the teachings of 
their sacred pages must first become passive to its spirit. The selfish 
and worldly impulses must be hushed into obedience ; for it is only 
in the silence of the flesh that we see God. The husbandman 
understandingly goes to work; first, to clear the ground of its 
natural growth of timber and whatever else may encumber it, 
though many of the stumps and roots may still remain ; second, to 
mellow the soil and bring it into a receptive condition ; third, to 
sow his seed, which he freely scatters over every part of the field. 
For a time this seed appears to be lost, the ground stripped of its 
natural foliage, and to the inexperienced eye all the labor seems to 
be in vain. But it gradually takes on the conditions of the soil, 
and soon, though at first imperceptible, it begins to germinate ; 
first, sending u forth the blade, then the ear, after that the full 
corn in the ear," rejoicing the heart of the husbandman. So with 
man in the commencement of his regeneration ; every department 
of his nature is thickly grown over with the conditions peculiar to 
the carnal life. Every thought and act turns to the gratification of 
some selfish end. The soil serves no use, other than to nourish its 
own natural, but worthless growth. u Thorns also and thistles 
shall it bring forth to thee ; and thou shalt eat the herb of the 

* Hell consists in the concupiscences of unregenerated loves ; Heaven in the 
harmonj of the human loves with the Divine. 



THE CONJUGAL PRINCIPLE. 61 

field."* If we would live in the garden of Paradise, we must 
stay our hand from plucking and our lips from tasting the forbidden 
fruit. 

God, as the husbandman of our souls, ploughs deep furrows in 
the carnal life, and turns up such substratum of soil as have long 
laid hid from view, and weeds from it the tares sown by the Adver- 
sary. At first, there is nothing but tares, and every weeding 
seems to strip the field of all there is ; and poor human nature 
feels itself robbed of every thing that makes life desirable. Weeks, 
months, and even years of desolation usually intervene between 
the turning up of the subsoil, and the blossoming of the divine 
fruit. The old stumps and roots of suppressed evils will continue 
for a long time to send up new shoots, differing perhaps, from the 
old trunk, and more feeble in growth ; but they will need constant 
and watchful care that they do not again bear fruit. A few years 
spent in thoroughly subjugating them, will prepare a beautiful 
garden in which shall bloom again the tree of life, bearing precious 
fruits, of which we may eat and live forever. 



The C onjugal Principle. 

Having now considered the three discrete degrees of the divine 
forces objective to man, it only remains to briefly consider by what 
principle they became incorporated into the human constitution so 
as to become subjective to him. For it is of but little avail to us 
that we exist in the midst of a moral universe, unless we can at 
the same time participate in its blessings. What, then, are the 
first fundamental principles by which we can place ourselves in 
harmony with the forces from which we derive all of our highest 
and only lasting enjoyments ? 

It will be conceded by every rational individual, that there is 
some department of man's nature through which the dividing line 
between the carnal and the spiritual is drawn, — some central prin- 
ciple, which, subject to the choice of the individual, may absorb 
either good or evil. To understand this, is to learn the origin of 
all disorder, and the gateway to either bliss or woe. What prin- 
ciple, then, in us, orderly aspected, is the most immediately allied 
to God? It cannot reasonably be supposed that God holds an 
immediate relation with the extreme ultimates, such as oscular 

* Gen. 3 : 18. 



62 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

system, or the cellular tissues ; but with the finer and more subtle 
elements, through which, by successive orders of mediumistic 
gradations, He acts upon the coarser properties of matter. Every 
thing exists solely by the action of His forces, — forces which 
throughout universal nature, so far as human intelligence can 
judge, are creative, — on the plane of the physical, of successive 
orders of the same species ; on the plane of the mind, of new 
thoughts and holier aspirations. Into what principle of Nature, 
then, can this universal Creative force find an immediate access? 
Certainly not into the feeling or thinking principle ; for these are 
but the ultimate results of divine forces. And furthermore, no 
principle ever flows into another, only through its own immediate 
correlative ; and the correlative of the Creator, as the first funda- 
mental principle, is the recreative. Whence it will be seen that 
man's only immediate connection with God is through the more 
subtle forces of the reproductive principle, the integrity of which 
governs every moral and physical condition. Nor can he become 
impregnated with the divine forces through any other principle of 
his being. In the Creator alone commences the Conjugal forces 
which pervades universal creation, and ultimates in the affinity of 
particles, and the copulative association of the sexes. 

Our first parents were driven from Eden for a mutual sin. 
Whatever that sin might have been, it was the one which has 
given rise to all others, — the pivotal wrong of all mankind. By 
listening to the voice of the serpent,* they were infused with the 
magnetism of evil, which was the commencement of a new 
condition within them. This subtle fascination culminated in the 
charms of the flesh, and they became more attracted physically 
than morally to each other. Pleasure became paramount to use, 
and love was superceded by lust ; thus inverting the primary prin- 
ciple of the human constitution, and turning man from the interior 
to the exterior plane of life. Instead of longer looking to God for 
His guidance and remaining passive to the influx of His sphere, 
and thus, regardless of self, living a life of holy uses ; they became 
pregnant with selfish ambitions, which sought to promote indi- 
vidual interest, regardless of the good of others. In this, the 
Divine sphere could not cooperate ; hence, a boundary was estab- 
lished between the outer and inner consciousness, that there might 
no longer remain an uninterrupted commerce between them. 

* By the Serpent, is evidently to be understood the corporeal sensual principle 
which turned man from the Lord to himself, and from heaven to the world. 



THE CONJUGAL PRINCIPLE. 63 

They were not allowed to commune with God and Satan at the 
same time ; so they were driven from the interior plane, where 
God bountifully supplies every need, into the exterior of unsub- 
dued appetites, fruitful in every hateful thing. In this consisted 
the fall of man. 

Assuming the verity of this brief statement, we arrive at the 
logical conclusion that the reproductive principle is the conjunctive 
medium between the Spiritual and the Natural throughout univer- 
sal existence. Through this, the Lord holds an immediate relation 
with man, not only, morally through the medium of His Holy 
Word ; but physically by His spiritual forces as the only means of 
maintaining the order of creation. There is but one Creator, and 
the recreative is the receptacle thereof. The spirit of the Word, 
possessing every divine quality, finds its ultimate lodgment in the 
reproductive instincts, in order to effect the New Birth essential 
to salvation. This completes the order from the most interior to 
the most exterior. We now have a complete chain of connection 
extending through each successive grade of existence, viz.: the 
reproductive principle the connecting medium between the Soul 
and the Body ; the Word the connecting medium between Man 
and the Divine Humanity ; the Divine Humanity the connecting 
medium between the Church and the Supreme Divinity. To 
the Church (using this term to designate a principle rather than 
an institution) the Divine Humanity is wedded,* and into which 
He flows as the recreative principle of the husband to the wife. 
Thus the Conjugal principle, having its origin in God, comes down 
through the three discrete degrees to man : first, from the Supreme 
Divinity into the Divine Humanity ; second, from the Divine 
Humanity through the medium of the Word into the Church 
which constitutes goodness and truth in the individual ; third, from 
the Husband into the Wife, as the final conservated action of the 
Creative forces. No sooner is any one of the links in this chain 
of connection removed from the affections of the individual, than 
the descent of these forces is prevented from having an orderly 
ultimation. Through this broken link, disorder establishes itself 
in the reproductive principle, so that, " Ye are of your father 
the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do."f 

* " Turn O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married into you." 
Jer. 3 : 14. " Come hither, I will show thee the bride the Lamb's wife." Rev. 21 : 9 
t John 8 : 44 



64 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

The vital quality of the seminal fluid is derived from the con- 
jugal principle which holds spirit and matter in relation with each 
other, and equally partakes of the properties of both ; hence it is 
the river which freights every condition of the human constitution, 
flowing from the most interior principle which immediately con- 
nects man with God, to the most exterior which is a part of the 
physical universe. In the allegorical history it is divided into four 
branches or tributaries, which, when united, embrace the entire 
being. An explanation of their names will clearly indicate the ter- 
ritories through which each flows. The name of the first is 
Pison, signifying intelligence originating in love, which encompass- 
ed the whole land Havilah, the celestial man, or all that is good. 
The name of the second river is Gihon, or the knowledge of good 
and truth, which encompasseth the whole land of Ethiopia, or love 
and faith. The name of the third is Hiddekel, corresponding to 
reason, which goeth towards Asyria, or the natural 2?rinciple. The 
fourth river is Euphrates, signifying the interior wisdom, or the 
spiritual intuitions ; thus embracing all that goes to make up the 
physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual constitution of man. 

Since the above was put in type, the following quotations from 
the Zendavesta or the laws of Zoroaster, where we probably find 
the greatest embodiment of the ancient Janite Mythology, has been 
handed me: " Almighty God spake to the wise Zoroaster and 
said : In the beginning I created the world. I created man after 
my image, and quickened him with my breath ; the place where 
he was to find living, dwelling, and sustenance, was already there, 
for I am Almighty God. Here appeared the bad spirit of unholy 
desires, who destroyed and counfounded everything."* Again : u I 
am the Lord and Creator. From me cometh all bliss. I said 'let 
there be,' and there was a region already cultivated, which brought 
forth fruits ; it was pleasing and devoted to husbandry. Therein 
I placed the first pair which I created after my image. But after- 
wards a serpent was found there, which insinuated itself and cor- 
rupted them. The serpent which appeared destroyed them through 
and through ; it was the bad spirit full of hellish desires ; he gave 
them a new food to taste, whereof they tasted a hundred times, 
whereof they tasted a thousand times, until they gave themselves 
up to it wholly."! 

In the reproductive principle we have the connecting medium 
between spirit and matter, the derangement of which, (and it is 

* Chapter 1. t Chapter 22. 



THE CONJUGAL PRINCIPLE. 65 

not subject to derangement save on the moral plane,) produces 
that awful chasm or impassable gulf between the higher and lower 
nature, or the heaven and hell in the individual constitution. It 
is morally impossible to float to the elysian fields of Paradise on 
the turbid streams of lust. Heavenly commerce is carried on only 
upon those crystal streams of purity which reflect the Divine 
image. In exact ratio as this principle becomes subverted from its 
orderly use, darkness and moral desolation broods over the mind. 
Nor is it possible for it to be otherwise ; for no sooner does this 
derangement commence than the individual becomes open to and 
receptive of every disorderly and disintegrating influence, — influ- 
ences which are sure, sooner or later, to work their pernicious 
results. It is well known that promiscuous concubinage destroys 
both the moral and physical condition more rapidly than any other 
vice ; dementing the intellect, obscuring the perceptions, pervert- 
ing the judgment, paralyzing the conscience, and devitalizing the 
body, — the canker in the heart vitiating the whole vital current of 
life, and causing it to freight death and destruction from the flesh to 
the spirit. 

Physiologists have also long since understood the fact that the sin 
of self-pollution is one of the most destructive evils ever practiced 
by fallen-man. In many respects it is even worse than promis- 
cuous whoredom, and has in its train more awful consequences. 
It excites the powers of nature to an undue action, and produces 
violent secretions, which necessarily and speedily exhausts the vital 
principle and energy ; hence, the muscles become flaccid and feeble, 
the tone and natural action of the nerves relaxed and impeded, 
the understanding confused, the memory oblivious, the judgment 
perverted, the will indeterminate and wholly without energy to 
resist ; the eyes appear languishing and without expression, and the 
countenance vacant ; appetite ceases, for the stomach is incapable 
of performing its proper office ; nutrition fails ; tremens, fears, 
and terrors are generated ; and thus the wretched victim drags 
out a miserable existence, till, superannuated, even before he had 
time to arrive at maris estate, with a mind often debilitated even 
to a state of idiotism, his worthless body tumbles into the grave, 
and his guilty soul (guilty of self-murder) is hurried into the 
awful presence of its Judge. Assuming the correctness of the 
opinion that God maintains the vital forces of the universe through 
the reproductive principle, any undue waste of the seminal fluids 
keeps the system drained of all its finer and more invigorating 



66 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

properties, thus leaving all the powers of both body and mind to 
sink into premature decay. 

One more consideration upon this subject will close the present 
chapter. 

Moral forces are the paramount principles of creation ; and as 
such, the quality of every other condition is determined by them. 
But as every principle of the Creator must necessarily have some 
corresponding principle which acts as a counterpart to itself, and 
through which it can ultimate its forces ; these can find no access 
into nature only through their own proper mediums of influx. 
This medium is the Moral Sentiments. Furthermore, there can 
be no subversion of any principle in nature without moral con- 
sciousness ; for it is by the subordination of the sentiments to the 
impulses, that all disorders are produced ; and as no other creature 
possesses the sentiments, man alone is capable of subverting any 
divine arrangement. True, the lower animals, being negative to 
man, may become the reflectors of man's condition after that con- 
dition has become once established'; but having no moral senti- 
ments, they cannot create any moral disorders ; hence, these, on 
whatever plane of life they become manifest, originate alone in 
man, and react upon him with fearful consequences. 

The institution of marriage, sustained from a sense of divine 
use, was designed by the Creator to be the medium through which 
the moral forces might find an orderly descent into all of the ulti- 
mate planes of life. And, as it is the tendency of all forces, 
through the law of conservated action, to reproduce themselves, 
every force of the Creator must necessarily, reasoning a priori, be 
in some way, connected with the recreative principle. This prin- 
ciple, when divinely considered, is synonymous with the conjugal 
principle ; for the conjugal principle, when orderly maintained, is 
no more productive of the species than of moral aspirations. It is 
therefore, in the marriage institution that w r e find the culmination 
of all the moral forces, — the juncture where the Creator, in every 
moral aspect, meets universal creation. I am not pretending to 
say but what the Lord holds an immediate relation with the physi- 
cal universe in a creative sense ; but not in any moral sense only 
through man ; and here, as elsewhere, through the recreative 
principle ; so that this principle in man governs the moral condition 
of the world. It is here, and here alone, that we complete the 
successive orders of mediumistie gradations of the Divine descent 
into the ultimate planes of existence. 



THE CONJUGAL PRINCIPLE. 67 

Here, then, we have the fundamental basis of marriage, which 
is the fundamental basis of Heaven, and of all religious life. As 
the wife is receptive of the husband in the degree of her love for 
him ; so in a like manner is the church (using this term to desig- 
nate a principle in the human constitution) receptive of the Lord, 
and becomes prolific in goods and truths to the extent of her fidelity 
to Him. This conjugal principle having its origin in the Supreme 
Divinity, descends through the Divine Humanity to man, — thus 
constituting the three discrete degrees of the Triune Forces. 
" As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you : continue ye 
in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my 
love ; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide 
in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy 
might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my 
commandment, That ye love one another as I have loved you."* 
For by so doing, we become the mediums of diffusing the divine 
love throughout the world, which, in an equal degree, becomes 
the means of changing every moral and physical condition. Here, 
then, we have ; first, the Supreme Divinity and the Divine Hu- 
manity ; second, the Holy Spirit and the Church ; third, Husband 
and Wife. Through the conjugal forces of husband and wife — in 
contradistinction to lustful desires — the Divine forces originat- 
ing in the marriage of Infinite Love and Infinite Wisdom descend 
into the ultimate planes of life where they reproduce their own 
inherent qualities. 

Hence we see the terribleness of adultery ; it destroys the 
church in the individual, so that there is nothing into which the 
Holy Spirit can find access, — thus, at one fell stroke, severing the 
chain of connection between man and his God. Then comes 
spiritual infidelity, which is a ligitimate and an inevitable result of 
conjugal infidelity. All interest in the letter of God's Word 
becomes destroyed by first having destroyed the conditions of 
understanding its spirit. Being thus deprived of every holy 
enjoyment by closing up the avenues of the divine descent, their 
loves, in every conceivable form, becomes inverted into hateful 
lust — lust of the flesh and lust of the world; and having lost 
sight of God they appeal to Nature, and interpret her teachings 
through the medium of their inverted perceptions, thus falsifying 
every principle, and continually adding fuel to the already over- 
heated fires of their sensual appetites, and hurrying in helpless and 

* John 15:9-12. 



68 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

hapless confusion down the broad way of sensuality to destruction, 
where, having sown to the wind they reap the whirlwind. 

In the conjugal relation, the faith or confidence of the wife in 
her husband is uniformly in keeping with her love for him. 
Wherever she yields her affections there also she bestows her con- 
fidence — one is the legitimate fruit of the other. Her love con- 
joins her with him, at the same time rendering her negative to and 
receptive of his influence ; and by this receptivity she becomes 
the reflector of his wisdom and the ultimater of his forces. His 
wisdom uniting with her love establishes her confidence in him in 
exact ratio to the degree of their purity, — her faith towards her hus- 
band being the result of the union of the two principles. For as 
wisdom is the outwrought principle of integrity of life and truth 
of doctrine ; so faith is the outwrought principle of love and wis- 
dom. Woman is as much dependent upon man for the elements 
necessary to perfect her higher womanly qualities, as she is for the 
elements of procreation ; and the noticeable characteristics of 
unloving wives and aged maidens are chiefly due to this physiologi- 
cal principle. An unloving or an unloved woman is a social mon- 
strosity. No sooner does she impair or destroy her love for her 
husband by any infidelity towards him, than she ceases to have 
any faith in him ; and in the same ratio she becomes his detester 
instead of his admirer. 

In this brief illustration, which I shall hereafter more fully eluci- 
date in these pages, we have the emblem of the marriage of the 
Lord with the Church — both governed by the same law, being 
the conservated action of the same forces. The first great com- 
mandment is, i; Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart." The necessity of this precept consists in the importance 
of our becoming impregnated or infused by the Divine sphere so 
that it may become a living principle of faith within us ; for it is 
man's privilege to become receptive of the Lord as it is woman of 
her husband ; yea, more, it is for him to bear divine fruits and 
impart them to the wife, that she may ultimate them in the pro- 
creation of moral beings. Again : they who truly love God have 
perfect confidence in both His ability and disposition to do all 
needful things for them, and they cast all their cares upon Him, 
as the wife upon the husband, knowing that He careth for them. 



CHAPTER II. 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 



To ascertain the precise point of connection between Spirit and 
Matter and their relation to each other, has been the great problem 
of the world. Upon this most intricate and difficult of all themes 
there have been two classes of metaphysicians, one reasoning from 
the hypothesis that Matter is the result of Mind, and the other 
that Mind is the result of Matter. To ascertain which is the 
cause and which is the effect, has defied all human reasoning. 
Apparently widely differing on the one hand in their nature and 
qualities, especially when viewed at the point of their greatest 
divergence ; while on the other, when contemplated in their great- 
est confluent action they seem to loose their distinctive character- 
istics in each other. Precisely the same difficulties have arisen, 
and diversities of opinion have been maintained in reference to 
Light and Heat, Positive and Negative Electricity, etc. A know- 
ledge of the true relationship of Spirit and Matter will pave the 
way to an explanation of every other philosophical deduction. 

To aid, therefore, in settling this important question, I shall 
offer the following considerations, namely : 
I. Spirit and Matter are inseparable. 

II. They are coeternal and cooperative principles. 
III. Their equilibrium is the balance of power. 

These propensities I shall briefly consider in their order, after 
which I shall make them the basis of future contemplations. 

I. Spirit and Matter are inseparable. 

The lowest reduction which chemical analysis has yet been able 
to make of Matter, is sixty-four so called primative elements. 
Out of these all things in Nature are said to be compounded. All 
of these primaries are found in the rocks, the debridation of which 
in varied proportion forms the soil, the vegetables, and animals. 



70 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Though I sliS.ll agree with philosophers that all material exis- 
tences are isomeric* compounds, I shall dissent from the opinion of 
their being sixty-four primaries ; (though this may be the lowest 
chemical analysis,) but shall reduce this number to two simple 
elements, viz.: Spirit and Matter. These are the primative 
elements entering into all organic and inorganic substances ; each 
of which per se contains both a positive and negative phase of action ; 
while, at the same time, the former preeminently holds a positive 
relation to the latter. I speak of these, therefore, as simple ele- 
ments with this reservation, that like electricity, which is the most 
observable type of all the forces in Nature, every simple element 
has a two-fold action, one being exactly balanced by the other. 
In a magnetized bar of steel, for example, the positiveness of the 
one end is balanced by the negativeness of the other, while the 
centre appears to have no magnetic action. Break it in two, or a 
thousand fragments, and the same phenomenon will attend each 
separate piece ; thus clearly showing that though the greatest 
observable manifestation is at the poles, the two principles are 
intimately blended throughout the bar ; but combining their 
dynamic forces in relative degrees at the extremities, in order to 
effect the cohesion of other particles that are adjacent to, and oppo- 
site in their electrical action. 

The dispute which has hitherto arisen in reference to their being 
two kinds of Electricity, had its origin in overlooking the great 
philosophical truth of the universal law of double action, upon 
which all existence depends, — force being the result only of com- 
bined relation. Particle can unite with particle, only in virtue of 
the positive and negative forces inherent in each. To destroy 
this, were it possible, would be to destroy their dynamic power, 
and consequently their cohesive attraction ; for the first principles 
of dynamics consists in the affinity of particles. The magnet 
per se, or as a whole, has no affinity for itself; but its positive force 
attracts the negative of whatsoever it is brought in contact, and 
vice versa. In this, we have a representative principle of univer- 
sal existence. The invisible force is the Spirit ; the form is the 
Matter. 

Keeping these fundamental principles in view, we will briefly 
turn our attention to an investigation of the properties of Matter. 
And here what first strikes our attention, is its infinite divisibility. 

* An epithet applied to different bodies which agree in compound but differ in 
qualities. 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 71 

Gross and material as all solid substances at first appear to be, they 
are easily divided and sublimated, or so far resolved back into their 
original constituents, as to pass beyond all finite conception, and 
become equally lost to human comprehension as spirit itself. 

If we microscopically investigate a single drop of water, though 
apparently a transparent homogenious body, we find it swarming 
with organic life, each too minute in their structure to be visible 
to the naked eye ; nevertheless, each of these possess all the mul- 
tiplied and varied apparatus necessary to carry on all the functions 
of an organized being. Nor can there be any reasonable doubt 
that their structure is as perfect, and as well adapted to their con- 
dition as that of man's to his. And when we reflect upon the 
great variety of particles that are necessary to make up a single 
organ, and that each function immensely varies in their composi- 
tion, we readily see how wholly inadequate is the human mind to 
comprehend the minuteness of each separate particle, and we are 
led to exclaim with the Psalmist : " Such knowledge is too won- 
derful for me ; it is high, I cannot attain unto it."* 

For example, mix a single drop of milk with a hogshead of 
water, and every inconceivable particle of the water will contain 
a definite portion of the milk ; and could we enlarge our capabili- 
ties sufficiently to enable us to thoroughly analyze a single drop of 
this water, we should find that it had imbibed from the milk, 
fibrin, albumen, casein, gluten, oil, sugar, starch, choride of potas- 
sium, chloride of sodium, phosphate of soda, phosphate of lime, 
phosphate of magnesia, and phosphate of iron ; and what is more, 
each of these ingredients is a compound made up of others. 

It is also a well known fact that miasmatic vapors arising from 
the decomposition of vegetable substances fills the atmosphere for 
miles around ; but which there is no means of detecting only by 
its effects upon the delicate structure of the nervous system ; 
nevertheless this is sufficient to produce chills followed by violent 
inflammation, or even death. It is therefore clearly evident by 
this and other analogous instances that it is a material agent which 
operates topically upon the tissues, thus impairing the normal 
integrity of the parts. 

Or let us take another and still more striking example from the 

medical department. Sulphur is one of the sixty-four primaries 

known in chemistry. Tincture this in rectified spirit of wine, in 

the ordinary manner ; then add one drop of this tincture to ten 

* Psalms 139: 6. 



72 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

drops of the pure spirit ; then one drop of this first dilution to ten 
more of the spirit ; one of the second to ten more, and so on up 
to the thirtieth dilution, thoroughly shaking each preparation ; the 
last dilution will contain 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 
of a drop of the original tincture. Now, experience has fully 
demonstrated that so far from this extreme attenuation destroying 
its medicinal effects, a thousandth part of a drop of this last dilution 
will produce, in many instances, more apparent effect upon the 
human organism, than ten grains of the original drug. Thus, 
inconceivably minute as they are, they array themselves along the 
nerves, — the highways of the soul, — and by their electrical forces 
in cooperation with the Spirit, establish a new action throughout 
the organic structure. I am of the opinion that the efficacy of 
Homeopathic remedies is in virtue of their proximity to the Spirit, 
by this means reestablishing an equilibrium in the dynamic forces ; 
and that the necessary degree of attenuation depends upon the 
mental or spiritual susceptibility of the patient. 

These examples are sufficient to give us some idea of the infinite 
divisibility of Matter, and show us that like Spirit, its correlative 
principle, it is beyond human comprehension. There is no diffi- 
culty in pointing out the difference at the end of the greatest 
divergence of any two principles in Nature ; but at the point of 
their union they appear to loose themselves in each other. No 
one, for instance, would be at a loss to distinguish between an 
Elephant and an Oak, but when we descend to the opposite 
extreme, we meet with the greatest difficulty in ascertaining where 
the vegetable ceases and the animal commences ; from the circum- 
stances that the distinguishing characteristics of each kingdom 
disappear, one after another, until we are reduced to those which 
seem common to both. So completely is this the case, that there 
are many tribes which cannot, in the present state of our know- 
ledge, be referred with certainty to either one division or the other. 
Precisely such is the case in reference to Spirit and Matter. To 
distinguish between the Rock and the Soul of man is no difficult 
task ; but when by ascending in the opposite scale we approximate 
those elements out of which each is formed, they, to all human 
appearance, so blend with each other as to set at defiance further 
investigation ; which fact, of itself, is of great weight in proving 
their coexistence, and in showing that their cooperative action is 
the balance of power ; that, like the ordinary Magnet, they are 
converse in principle, yet confluent in action. As I know of no 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 73 

word which expresses my idea upon this point, I shall claim the 
privilege of coining one to my liking. I will, therefore, denomi- 
nate these principles Co-opposites, — co-signifying with or union; 
opposite, as contrary or adverse, — thus the union and cooperation 
of two adverse principles. The Encephalon affords a striking 
example of this idea. The Cerebrum and Cerebellum are two 
distinct and separate organs, diverse in action ; but the mainte- 
nance of the existence of each is dependent upon that of the other ; 
and the integrity of the moral and physical constitution depends 
upon their reciprocal action. 

"But a span of that- time which stretches both backwards and 
forwards into eternity is meted out to man here on earth, and the 
space which his foot can tread, is narrowly bounded above and 
below ; so also his scientific knowledge finds natural limits in the 
direction of the infinitely small as well as of the infinitely great. 
The question of atoms seems to me to lead beyond these limits, 
and hence I consider it unpractical. An atom in itself can no 
more become an object of our investigation than a differential, 
notwithstanding that the ratio which such immensely small aux- 
iliary magnitudes bear to one another, may be represented by 
concrete numbers. In every case, however, the conception of an 
atom must be regarded as merely relative, and must be considered 
in connection with some . definite process ; for, as is well known, 
the particles of an acid and a base may play the part of atoms in 
the formation and decomposition of a salt, while, in another pro- 
cess, these atoms may themselves undergo further divisions. "* 

Matter, in whatever degree of sublimation or grossness we con- 
template it, is the plane of use, while the spirit is its fecundating 
principle. Terrestrially, the plane between the first copulation of 
these, and the birth of human intelligences appears to be one 
immense laboratory for the reproduction of successive generic 
species, all of which have direct reference, as preliminaries to the 
proper development of Man, into whom, as to a focal point, all 
other animated existences culminate, — their immortality ultimating 
itself in man as the streams in the ocean. This is Nature's method 
for the unfolding of humanity. And here, upon the plane of the 
human, we find every possible grade from where they first merge 
from the animal, up to the most delicate and sensitive structure. 
In Man is the final and ultimate perfection of the component parts 
of the deberised rocks. Death is the separation of the crude and 
* Dr. J. R. Mayer on the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat. 



74 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

more external materials which belong to mundane life, from those 
which are immortal in their composition. Here is the basis of St. 
Paul's statement that " there is a natural body and there is a 
spiritual body," — not sowing that body which shall be, but like 
the grain of wheat, bearing one that shall be immortal; these 
varying in degree as the flesh of men, of beast, of fishes, and of 
birds ; the glory of which shall more widely differ than that of the 
sun, moon, and stars ; and this from reasons which will be here- 
after explained. 

The cohesive and gravitative forces of Matter are in virtue of 
the Spirit which pervades it. The diurnal and annual revolution 
of the planets, all reproduction, growth and decay, are governed 
by the same principles — the preponderance of one over the other 
will account for every phenomenon in Nature. The essence — 
flowing from the Divine Esse* of all existence — is found in the 
copulation of these two principles, and they are strictly maintained 
in every department of organic and inorganic life ; first marrying 
particle to particle ; second, organ to organ and their legitimate 
functions ; and last, one distinct entity to another ; the highest of 
which is Man and Woman ; and they in their united capacity, 
orderly aspected, form the conditions of the Church, which is 
truths of doctrine and goodness of life, and this is married to the 
Lord — thus completing the circle. 

It is evident that Matter is but the congelation of congenital 
principles which are consonant to each other. Philosophical 
writers have divided it into three distinct classes, viz. : Solids, 
Liquids, and Aeriforms. Now, if we contemplate the middle 
class, we find that it so far extends into each of the others as, in 
its extremes, to loose all of its distinctive characteristics as a Liquid. 
On the one hand, it so completely pervades the aeriform as to 
become wholly lost to human view ; while on the other, it assumes 
a consolidated form more resisting than most of the other solids. 
If we turn our attention to an investigation of the geological 
changes which have taken place in the physical condition of the 
planet upon which we have our existence, we find that it has been 
subjected to physical changes corresponding to those through which 
Man passes in becoming established as an organized being. I am 
of the opinion that in Embryo Life the Solids and Fluids of the 
new being are made up of those imponderable elements that circu- 
late through the nervous system of the mother and child, attracted 

* An essence pre-supposes an esse ; an esse being the cause of an essence. 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 75 

to the Germ deposited by the male parent, and not from the cor- 
puscles of the blood directly, as has usually been supposed. If it 
were possible to ascertain the precise order of the evolution of the 
Universe of Matter, inasmuch as Nature in its every department 
is arranged upon one general plan, it would furnish us with a type 
of all physical organization. 

•■ The globe, in the first state in which the imagination can 
venture to consider it," says Sir Humphrey Davy, u appears to 
have been a fluid mass, with an immense atmosphere revolving in 
space round the sun. By its cooling, a portion of its atmosphere 
was probably condensed into water, which occupied a part of its 
surface. In this state, no form of life, such as now belong to our 
system, could have inhabited it. The crystaline rocks, or, as they 
are called by geologists, the primary rocks, which contain no 
vestige of a former order of things, were the result of the first 
consolidation on its surface. Upon the further cooling, the water, 
which, more or less, had covered it, contracted ; depositions took 
place ; shell-fish and coral insects were created, and began their 
labors. Islands appeared in the midst of the ocean, raised from 
the deep by the productive energies of millions of zoophytes. 
These islands became covered with vegetables fitted to bear a high 
temperature, such as palms, and various species of plants, similar to 
those which now exist in the hottest parts of the world. The sub- 
marine rocks of these new formations of land became covered with 
aquatic vegetables, on which various species of shell-fish, and com- 
mon fishes, found their nourishment. As the temperature of the 
globe became lower, species of the oviparious reptiles appear to 
have been created to inhabit it ; and the turtle, crocodile, and 
various gigantic animals of the Saeri (lizard) kind seem to have 
haunted the bays and waters of the primitive lands. But in this 
state of things, there appears to have been no order of events 
similar to the present. Immense volcanic explosions seem to have 
taken place, accompanied by elevations and depressions of the 
surface of the globe, producing mountains, and causing new and 
extensive depositions from the primitive ocean. The remains of 
living beings, plants, fishes, birds, and oviparious reptiles, are found 
in the strata of rocks which are the monuments and evidence of 
these changes. When these revolutions became less frequent, and 
the globe became still more cooled, and inequalities of temperature 
were established by means of mountain-chains, more perfect 
animals became its inhabitants, such as the mammoth, megalonix, 



76 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

megatherium, and gigantic hyena, many of which have become 
extinct. Five successive races of plants, and four successive races 
of animals appear to have been created and swept away by the 
physical revolutions of the globe, before the system of things 
became so permanent as to fit the world for man. In none of 
these formations, whether called secondary, tertiary, or diluvial, 
have the fossil remains of man, or any of his work, been discovered. 
At last man was created, and since that period there has been 
little alteration in the physical circumstances of the globe." 

If the hypothesis of Sir Humphrey Davy is well founded, of 
which it appears to me there can be no reasonable doubt, we are 
furnished in the organization of our planet with an additional evi- 
dence, on a large scale, of the primeval fluidity of all material 
substances. And by the same process of reasoning, it is clearly 
evident that there was a period in the past, when the soil and rocks 
were as imponderable and imperceptable elements, as the ether 
that now fills the space between different orbs ; and which was no 
more discernable to the finite ability, than is the Spirit which 
cooperated in first effecting its consolidation, and still enables it to 
maintain its tangibility and reproductive qualities. 

The hypothesis that God is a distinct individual entity, possess- 
ing Infinite Wisdom and Love, I shall assume to be unquestionably 
true. From Him issues a Sphere, as light from the Sun, which 
pervades Infinitude and which is, first, perpetually Cre'ative and 
the cause of all reproduction ; second, the illuminating and calorific 
principle ; and third, the dynamical power which causes every 
physical phenomena in Nature. This dynamic force, like every 
other principle, has a two-fold office — a positive and a negative 
phase of action : on the one hand governing life and action ; on 
the other, thought and sensation, — connecting therefore, on the one 
side, with Matter ; on the other, with Spirit. Thus it is, " in Him 
we live, move, and have our being " ; physically through the 
medium of the dynamic forces operating through Nature ; morally 
through the medium of the dynamic forces operating through 
Revelation. The grand universal order thereof, is; first, the 
Divine Being; second, Spirit; third, Matter, — the dynamic not 
being a discrete degree but the resultant force of Spirit and Matter. 
For the sake of distinction, I here use the "Divine" as a discrete 
degree above Spirit. I am aware that God declares Himself to be 
a Spirit, so also Love, Life, and Light ; but to me, these are 
evidently His properties or integral parts delegated to man, rather 
than God as a unit or per se. 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 77 

Man has also within himself three discrete degrees, viz. : Spirit, 
Soul, and Body. " And the very God of peace sanctify you 
wholly ; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be 
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."* 
Again : " The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper 
than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder 
of soul and spirit"-\ The ^oul is the life of the body, possessed 
in common by all conscious existences, and the receptacle of natural 
life ; the Spirit is the immortal part and receptacle of divine life. 
Man has no divine only what flows into him, as dew into the 
earth ; for Spirit, the highest quality in man, is the first degree 
below the Divine, and is therefore immediately receptive of it. 
True, all life is from Him, who alone hath immortality, the immor- 
tality of man being simply a delegated principle ; but with man, in 
contradistinction to the brute, there are two sources of influx, one 
through Nature which is natural life ; the other through the Sen- 
timents, which is divine life ; so that in man alone the Divine and 
the Natural meet. Hence we may define the soul as a receptive 
form of the natural life possessed in common by all sentient beings. 
Spirit, in contradistinction to the soul, may be defined as the final 
culmination of all the forces of the natural life where they assume 
the human form. This form being; in the Divine form it can attain 
to nothing higher, consequently becomes eternally fixed in its condi- 
tion. This life principle originating in God, no where ceases to 
change its form, until it reaches a form corresponding to its Pro- 
genitor. The moral order of the life depends upon the uninter- 
rupted flow of the divine into every department of the individual 
constitution. A representative of this fact is found in the human 
embryo. An indiscernible liquid particle is deposited in the womb, 
where it passes through all the successive changes until it reaches 
the form of its parent. So in a like manner there is no stopping 
or cessation in the workings of the divine germ deposited in the 
womb of Nature, until it gives birth to man, who is the image of 
his Infinite Progenitor. No reference is here had to the moral 
condition, but only to the organic structure. Even devils partake 
of the human shape except so far as they have become distorted 
by sin, the only disorganizing and deranging principle. 

Much of late has been said and written in behalf of the " devel- 
opment theory," a theory founded upon the hypothesis that man 
is the result of the progressive unfolding of Nature, recognizing 

* 1 Thessalonians, 5 : 23. t Hebrews, 4 : 12, 
u 



78 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

no God, but the forces innate in the constitution of Matter. 
Epicurus, who lived in the third century, antecedent to the com- 
mencement of the Christian era, was of the opinion that atoms 
were self-endowed with gravity and motion, by which all things 
w r ere formed, without the aid of a supreme intelligent Being. 
The present Pantheistic speculations are founded upon the same 
erroneous idea ; maintaining the doctrine that the universe itself 
is God ; consequently that He is an unconscious and boundless 
entity, instead of being circumscribed in form; but infinite in 
principle. If such views were well founded, we might forever 
bid adieu to any thing like an attempt at reasoning from cause to 
effect. For all human observation teaches us that each generic 
species gives birth only to the same order of existence. We never 
see an oak springing from a grain of wheat, an elephant from a 
bird, nor a man from a rock ; but each are propagated by their 
kind. Wherefore, if there is not a conscious individual Intelli- 
gence, the question arises, how came man, to say nothing of the 
almost endless variety of animated beings, into existence ? From 
whence did he first derive his germinal properties? The pantheist 
would answer, from Nature. But this will not do, for a stream 
can rise no higher than its fountain ; and man is certainly above 
the elements out of which he is physically composed. 

If I were asked from whence a child had derived its existence, 
and should reply that it came forth from the womb, no one would 
deem this a satisfactory explanation, and I should be told that the 
womb was only a concomitant organ of the mother ; and still 
more, that the mother herself, unaided, had no power to give exis- 
tence to a new being ; but that it required the action of another 
force united with her's to effect this result. And, furthermore, 
that this organ is simply a contrivance in which the embryo may 
perfect a distinct individual entity ; but to which it bears no per- 
sonal resemblance, and as it is a universal law that the begotten 
bears a likeness to the begettor, we are obliged, from all logical 
reasoning, to trace back the former to where we discover its kin- 
dred resemblance to the latter ; and this we do not find in Nature 
one whit more than we find the child resembling the womb that 
bore it. Lengthen the chain of Nature as long as we may, and 
the germinal principle of man travels back through each successive 
link to God as its father. 

While, therefore, it is conceded that the component parts which 
make up the organic structure, are derived from Nature, no sound 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 79 

philosophy can deny the fact that the real man which pervades and 
controls its earthly temple, has an origin supernatural and more 
immediately allied to its Infinite Progenitor. 

" What am I, whence produced, and for what end 1 
Whence drew I being, to what period tend ? 
Am I th' abandon'd orphan of blind chance, 
Dropp'd by wild atoms in disordered dance ? 
Or, from an endless chain of causes wrought, 
And of unthinking substance, born with thought. 
Am I but what I seem, mere fiesh and blood, 
A branching channel with a mazy flood ? 
The purple stream that through my vessels glides, 
Dull and unconscious flows, like common tides, 
The pipes, through which the circling juices stray, 
Are not that thinking I, no more than they ; 
This frame, compact with transcendent skill, 
Of moving joints, obedient to my will; 
Nursed from the fruitful globe, like yonder tree, 
Waxes and wastes, — I call it mine, not me. 
New matter still the mould'ring mass sustains ; 
The mansion chang'd, the tenant still remains ; 
And, from the fleeting stream, repaired by food, 
Distinct, as is the swimmer from the flood." 

Let us illustrate this point still further ; for it is important that 
we trace man's true relationship in order that we may learn to 
whom or what he owes allegiance. If the Lord God be our father, 
let us worship Him ; but if Nature, then it alone demands our 
reverence. If we microscopically investigate the commencement 
of man's organic existence, we find that it corresponds to the lowest 
order of animation. On the part of the female there is nothing 
visible in the Ovum, but a collection of very transparent minute 
fluid globules, surrounded by a mass of dark granules. These 
globules contains within them an imperceptable germinal vesicle, 
one of which, on becoming impregnated, gradually enlarges its 
dimensions, forming around it successive layers of granular matter. 
The exterior or peripheral portion, which previously consisted of 
a collection of very minute granules, begins to develop itself into 
a ring of new cells of extreme delicacy ; these gradually enlarge, 
and a second ring of cells develop within it, pushing the first 
formed cells farther away from the centre. Many successive rings 
of cells are thus formed ; and at last the whole germinal vesicle is 
filled with them. Still there remains a pellucid space in the centre 
of the germinal spots in which no cells are developed. The first- 
formed cells that have been pushed outwards, are so much com- 



80 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

pressed by those subsequently formed, as frequently undergo liqui- 
faction ; and during the time that the ova are being matured for 
fertilization, there is a continual new production of cells at the 
centre, and a degeneration at the circumference. At the same 
time, the centre or yolk undergoes changes somewhat analogous ; 
for it ceases to contain separate oil-globules ; and larger eliptical 
discs or cells are seen in it, especially just beneath the zona pallu- 
cida. Here, too, the formation of new cells takes place from 
the peripheny towards the centre; the peripheral ones gradually 
undergo liquifaction, as is seen in the outer layers which are becom- 
ing indistinct ; and they are replaced by a new layer pushed out- 
wards from the centre. The same process continues to be carried 
on in the still more interior principle for some time after fecunda- 
tion ; and this, not only in regard to the yolk or centre as a whole, 
but in respect to its individual cells, which contain concentric rings 
of new cells that become visible by the evolution of the parent 
vesicles. Even in the most advanced of these secondary cells, 
another generation may be seen, and these are developed upon the 
same plan with those of the germinal vesicle, but evidently with- 
out containing the immortal Germ itself. These appear to be the 
successive layers of the more material principles which envelop the 
real germinal vesicle, as the leaves of the rose envelopes the 
pistil. The pellucid centre of the original nucleus of the parent 
disc is surrounded by several concentric rings of cells, increasing 
in size from within outwards ; and when the last layer is evolved 
and the most interior pellucid centre is reached, it then becomes 
wedded to the Spermatozoa, the near proximity of which has caused 
all of this agitation and struggle in bringing forth the most interior 
female principle thus carefully folded within the germinal vesicle. 
During all this period, there is no immediate contact of the two 
germs, but the sphere which accompanies them is so strong in its 
attractive influence upon each other, as to enable them to finally 
overcome all of the resistance of the various intercepting walls 
which hitherto intervened between them. 

The part of the male is no less important and mysterious in its 
operations. The spermatic fluid secreted by the testes differs from 
all other secretions, in containing a large number of very minute 
bodies, only discernable with a high power of the microscope ; and 
these, in ordinary cases, remain in active motion for some time 
after they have quitted the living body. The human spermatozoa 
consists of little oval flattened bodies from the one six-hundredth to 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 81 

one eight-hundredth of a line in length, from which proceeds a 
long filiform tail gradually tapering to the finest point of one fiftieth, 
or at most one fortieth of a line in length ; in shape mu$h resem- 
bling a snake, only the head being relatively large, which brings 
it somewhat into a corresponding shape to the polliwig or tadpole. 
This is perfectly transparent ; and nothing that can be termed 
structure, can be distinguished within it. It can be said to be 
nothing more nor less than the concentrated male principle, that 
contains the fundamental fructifying properties which the living 
organism has concreted from the Infinite Source of life. The 
movements of these spermatozoa are principally executed by the 
tail, which has a kind of vibratile undulating motion. These are 
the essential elements of the spermatic fluid ; and fecundation con- 
sists in the direct communication of one of them with a certain 
point of the ovum ; the truth of which statement appears to be 
too well established to admit of further doubt. 

At the time when the interior of the germinal vesicle is being 
prepared for the reception of the fecundating influence, the portion 
of the zona pellucida against which it lies becomes attenuated ; and 
a chink then forms in it, just above what was the pallucid centre 
of the germinal spot. Through this chink the spermatozoa can 
reach the Germinal Visicle, where it deposits the rudiments of the 
first cells, which are subsequently to be developed into the embry- 
onic structure. It is certain that none of the cells previously con- 
tained in the germinal vesicles subsequently form part of it ; in 
fact, they all liquify after a time, and disappear entirely. But in 
the previously pellucid centre of what was the germinal spot, two 
new cells are seen after fecundation ; these enlarge at the expense 
of the rest ; and from them, all the permanent structure originates. 
This pair of cells, living far in the interior of all others, now coa- 
lesce and become an attractive nucleus which conjoin others to 
themselves until the being is finally perfected in its organic struc- 
ture. From the time of the first union of these two cells, the 
contents of the germinal vesicles undergo such a rapid increase in 
size, that they soon fill the whole interior of the zona pellucida; 
and the cells of the yolk being reduced by the new force now 
established, their elements are now absorbed to build up the new 
Embryonic structure. In each of the two primary germ-cells, (or 
the wedded pair as they may now be called,) a series of changes 
now takes place, exactly conformable to that already described as 
occurring in the germinal visicle, — that is to say, — a ring of new 



82 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

cells originating in the margin of its nucleus, — this increases in 
size, and is pushed outwards by another ring nearer -the centre, 
this againfrby another, and so on, — and at last two cells appear in 
the pellucid central space, which are developed at the expense of 
all the rest, and are to be regarded as the real permanent offspring 
of the parent. 

By the coalescence of these two primary germinal vesicles, which 
really are infinitely too minute for human comprehension, a new 
force is established which creates the human structure with all of 
its complicated parts, organs, and powers. It is not irrational to 
suppose that each of the several layers successively thrown off by 
the germinal visicle before it fully unites with the spermatozoa cor- 
responds to a strata in Nature with which it has connected in its 
journey ings through the successive orders of organic life. The 
truth of this hypothesis finds no little support in the well known 
fact that these evolutions diminish in exact ratio as we descend in 
the scale of organization. It has become a well established physio- 
logical truth, that originally there is no perceptible difference 
between the Conferroid Plant and the highest Animal Organiza- 
tion ; for both alike derive their existence from the union of two 
simple cells. A simple cell therefore, may be regarded as the type 
of all Organization ; and its action may be said to constitute the 
simplest idea of life. 

These cells may be divided into two classes ; first, the primary, 
which are the immediate offsprings of Spirit and Matter ; and 
second, the secondary, which are the offsprings of other cells. The 
most remarkable phenomena here observable is that the power of 
prolification diminishes in proportion as we recede from the primary 
or germinal cells. In the vegetable kingdom each separate part of 
any structure that contains a primary cell, is capable of reproduc- 
ing the whole plant, and the simplest cryptogamia, such as the 
yeast fungus, every single cell may be regarded as a distinct indi- 
vidual ; since it is capable of living by itself and generating new 
cells. In the lower orders of the animal kingdom, though this 
power is greatly diminished, it is not wholly lost. In some species 
of isolated Polypifera, such as the common Sea-Anemone, and 
Hydra (fresh-water polype,) it is largely preserved. The hydra 
may be cut into a large number of pieces (it is said as many as 
forty) of which every one shall be capable of developing itself in 
time into a perfect polype. And the star-fish has been known to 
be deprived of one, two, three, and even four rays, which have 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 83 

been gradually reproduced. The sea-anemone, when divided either 
transversely or vertically, still lives ; and each half produces the 
other, so as to reform the perfect animal. This power gradually 
diminishes as we rise in the scale of organization, until we finally 
reach those animals whose individual existence depends upon the 
integrity of all their parts. 

In the lower orders of organic existence we also find Nature 
teeming with life which apparently simultaneously spring into 
being without any individual act of coition ; but which have their 
birth directly from the copulative force of Spirit and Matter. 
And thus vast swarms of insects and vermin, differing immensely 
in variety, spring up in a day like the frogs, locusts, and lice of 
Egypt. In the greatest number of fishes it is w T ell known that no 
sexual congress takes place ; the seminal fluid being merely effused 
like any other excretion, into the surrounding water ; and being 
thus brought into accidental contact with the ova. But the higher 
classes of fishes, such as the sharks, rays, and eels, copulate in the 
ordinary manner. Birds and the lower orders of the mammalia 
bring forth their young in broods and litters ; these also gradually 
diminishing in their multifarious qualities as they rise in the scale 
of organization ; until we arrive at those who mature only a single 
germ in a year. Moreover, the quantity of their production and 
the age at which they become prolific, hold an inverse ratio to each, 
other. When we reach man as the last and final development of 
the germinal principle, where it assumes an immortality of form, 
we find that the prolific qualities are reduced to the lowest mini- 
mum, and which only commences at an age allotted as the full 
period of life to those mammalia which are the most fruitful. 

An objection may here be raised that the vegetable and animal 
kingdoms have no personal resemblance to their divine Progenitor, 
provided that He is their Father instead of being merely their 
Creator ; and that I have also laid it down as an axiom in meta- 
physics that the begotten necessarily resembles the begetter ; I 
reply that there is as much resemblance between these and their 
Creator as there is between the human embryo in its earlier stages 
of development and its earthly parent. In other words, I regard 
the vegetable and animal kingdoms as the immature stages of 
development of the divine germ, which becomes fully born only 
when it reaches man. This cosmographical view of man's origin 
and successive development finds no little confirmation in the fact 
that he contains within himself every conceivable trait of character 



84 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

that belongs to all of the brute creation in their combined capacity ; 
while at the same time, he adds to these those peculiar qualities 
which we are accustomed to attribute to Him in whose image man 
was made. 

Dropping the Spirit, the same order on the next strata below, 
characterizes the brute, viz. : Instinct, Soul, and Body. Here, 
upon this plane, we find no inherent intelligence, (for this belongs 
to the Spirit) ; but animals are teachable in exact proportion to 
their receptivity of intelligence from man ; which, uniting with 
instinct, often produces great sagacity. Dominion over them was 
given to man in virtue of his Spirit, and through that alone they 
are held in subordination ; and had not sin intercepted to a large 
extent, the influx of the divine principle or influence, this dominion 
would have been unlimited ; and the most ferocious animals would 
have peacefully yielded to man's behests. The divine reaches the 
brute only through man in a corresponding manner, as the soul 
reaches the muscles through the nerves ; the ferocious qualities 
therefore of the brute, depend upon the channel through which the 
divine flows to them, — Spirit being the only plane of moral inver- 
sion. Man, in common with the brute, connects directly with the 
earth, and through his moral agency becomes the only insulator 
between it and the orderly descent of the divine forces. By his 
apostasy he has caused the whole creation to groan and travail in 
pain together. He surcharges the atmosphere with his sin-polluted 
breath which engenders a miasm, and induces a general tendency 
to a deranged action. The animal kingdom is necessitated to 
breathe the same air and feed upon vegetation impregnated with 
evil, and thus instinctively turn from man as their enemy. Ser- 
pents, venomous reptiles, and noxious insects, are but concrete 
living forms, having their origin in man's disobedience. 

These considerations show the utter fallacy of the idea that we 
need not be disturbed by the sins of others so long as the indi- 
vidual does not personally interfere with us. While they live upon 
the same planet and breathe the same atmosphere, all are compel- 
led to partake of the consequences of their condition. Nature, in 
its every department, is impregnated with their evil thoughts and 
doings, so that every breath we inhale, every particle we eat, and 
every drop we drink, are all exuding with a moral poison absorbed 
from the sins of mankind. Every bad man and woman is a gate- 
way through which moral and physical death flows from the spirit- 
ual domain of evil ; which, Vesuvius-like, inundates all the sur- 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 85 

rounding plains with its awful lava, filling the air with its sulphu- 
rious stench. Thus enveloped, our lives are sustained through a 
perpetual miracle by the Divine Mercy. But I am digressing. 

The animal fluids are governed by the same law. The blood is 
the first grand division, or discrete degree on the material side, and 
contains the greatest variety of ingredients, such as water, albu- 
men, fibrine, an animal coloring substance, fatty matter, different 
salts, as chlorides of potassium and sodium, phosphate of lime, 
subcarbonate of soda, lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, and lac- 
tate of soda, united with animal matter. At the same time it 
should be borne in mind that each of these ingredients are them- 
selves compounds of others not named. This is first divided into 
arterial and venous blood, varying in degree of temperature and 
specific gravity ; second, into fluid and solid substances ; third, into 
acid and alcidine properties. And here I must be allowed to state, 
that as color is a property of light, and extension and figure are 
properties of bodies ; so likewise acids and alculines are pro- 
perties of all Matter, whether solids or fluids, and are the basis of 
all organic and inorganic life, the primeval source, materially, of 
all electrical action, and therefore, of all affinitative principle ; thus 
constituting the dynamics of nature. To remove this link from 
the chain of causation, would be to deprive Matter of every active 
property it now possesses^ — power would be annihilated, particle 
would no longer adhere to particle ; the centripetal and contrifu- 
gal forces would cease to act ; and worlds and universe would 
wander forever amid their own ruins. 

The Sekum, (Ichor Sanguinis^) the most watery portions of 
the animal fluids, and which is a constituent part of the blood, is 
the next grand division or discrete degree in the ascending scale. 
This is chiefly made up of water, chloride of sodium, certain 
phosphates, albumen and soda. Thus containing the same posi- 
tive and negative principles arising from the acid and alculine pro- 
perties which it contains; but the mixture is composed of a less 
number of ingredients ; in other words, it approaches nearer a 
simple compound. It is well known that when the blood has been 
drawn from the body, and is allowed to remain at rest, a spontane- 
ous coagulation takes place, separating it into cressamentum and 
serum. The cressamentum or clot is composed of a network of 
fibrine, in the meshes of which the corpuscles, both red and color- 
less are involved, together with a certain amount of serous fluid. 
The serum, which is the same with the liquor sanguinis deprived 



86 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

of its fibrine, coagulates by heat, and is therefore known to con- 
tain albumen ; and if it be exposed to a high temperature, suffi- 
cient to decompose the animal matter, a considerable amount of 
earthy and animal salts remains. Thus we have four principle 
compounds in the blood ; namely : fibrine, albumen, corpuscles, and 
saline matter. In the circulating blood, they are thus combined : 

±1 brine, J In Solution, forming Liquor Sanguinous, in which the 
Salts™ 6 "' (Corpuscles are suspended. 

But in coagulated blood, they are combined as follows : 

Corpuscles ^ Which forms Crassamentum or Clot 
Albumen, 



Sail ( Remaining in solution forming Serum. 

It will therefore be seen that in the circulating blood there are 
three discrete combinations concordantly holding the fourth, the 
corpuscles, and conveying it to every part of the system and 
depositing it among the more - solid substances. In the living 
subject these mingle and circulate as one fluid ; but as soon as life 
becomes extinct, separation takes place, showing that there is no 
longer any affinity between them, and that in life they blended in 
virtue of some force which has now ceased to operate. That force 
was the dynamic power which governs life and action, connected 
with the grosser forms of Matter. 

I have already said that Matter is the plane of use ; and as such 
it is the receptive or maternal element of which Spirit is the cor- 
relative and fecundative principle. It would be difficult to con- 
ceive of the existence of Matter abstractly from Spirit or to what 
end it could tend. Possessing no principle without the vital forces 
of Spirit, it would be the most absolute inertia, without any con- 
ceivable vitality or mode of use. Socially such a condition was 
miniaturely represented by Adam antecedent to the creation of 
Eve. If, however, we look out upon the external world we dis- 
cover that every thing is arranged upon the bi-sexual plan. Any 
other arrangement would have involved the necessity of moulding 
and animating each separate entity by a special act of the Creative 
force, otherwise all Nature would have remained a solitary waste 
without either vegetable or animal existence. But the question 
is : by virtue of what principle does each generic species reproduce 
itself? I answer, by the forces delegated from the Creative sphere, 
which sphere of itself contains the esse of the bi-sexual principle. 

The Divine Being has two attributes, viz., Love and Wisdom ; 
these embrace all that the human mind can conceive of God. 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 87 

These two principles descend throughout all the successive grades 
of life, and become the conditions upon which existence itself is 
founded and successive orders of creations are effected. Were 
this two-fold action to cease it would put an end to all life and 
sensation, stopping both growth and decay, and immediately 
deprive all existing things of every principle of force and coopera- 
tion. Growth is effected through the affinity which Spirit and 
Matter have for each other, particle cohering to particle in virtue 
of the Spirit which pervades them, which Spirit per se is bi-sixual, 
the Wisdom holding the positive or impregnating relation to the 
Love, the former operating through the sphere of the latter, induc- 
ing growth so long as this growth can subserve any useful end, 
after which decay commences. Were it possible for man to extract 
the Spirit from Matter, it would at once be deprived of its gravita- 
tive and cohesive force, and to all human appearance would vanish 
into non-entity : for the particles, infinitely too minute to be 
detected, and no longer cohering to each other, nor gravitating 
towards any common centre, would become lost by being more 
equally distributed throughout space. 

Spirit and Matter separately considered, have each a positive and 
negative phase of action. Hermaphroditism, whether we contem- 
plate it in the mineral, vegetable, or animal kingdom, is universal, 
the ultimate expression of which is in distinct sexual entities. The 
first germinating principles are in the individual particles where 
Spirit and Matter unite, the greatest condensation of which is in 
the mineral kingdom. Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny, early 
discovered that most plants are hermaphrodite, the male and female 
organs being contained in the same flowers ; the male producing a 
pollen or dust, which fecundates the stigma of the pistil or female 
organ, and which is necessary to render it prolific. The human 
brain is the highest form of terrestrial substance, and stands as the 
highest type of organic life ; and here also we find the three dis- 
crete degrees of sexual action. It is first divided into a medullary 
and cineriiious substance ; second, into two distinct halves, right 
and left; third, into two distinct lobes cerebellum and cerebrum. 
Here are three discrete degrees, containing a marriage or -co-oppo- 
site action in each. These are again sub-divided into three more 
discrete degrees : first, the pia matter ; second, the dura matter ; 
and third, the cranium ; these again possess a two-fold action, each 
discrete in itself, but as an intermediate connects with the next 
discrete degree both above and below ; thus establishing an 



88 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

unbroken chain of connection between them. The brain is the 
termination of the animal solids, and is so far sublimated, so to 
speak, as to connect with the fluids. 

II. /Spirit and Matter are co-eternal and co-opposite principles. 

In the previous division of this chapter I have shown ; first, the 
extreme divisibility of Matter and traced it far beyond the power 
of chemical analysis in pointing out its effects upon the most deli- 
cate of all terrestrial substances, viz. ; the nervous system in the 
highest form of organized life ; second, that Matter is negative to, 
and the plane of use to the Spirit; third, that all dynamic power 
is in virtue of the union of the two principles, generated by their 
positive and negative action ; and fourth, that all observable phe- 
nomana, in common with their Infinite Author, possesses a Triune 
principle, viz. : Love, Will, and Operation. But under this head I 
shall aim to show their coeternal existence and coopposite relation. 

The human mind has no capacity by which it can conceive of 
form without substance, or substance without form. Wherefore it 
will be seen that, to the finite comprehension at least, form and 
substance are correlative and coeternal properties of existence. 
By the same parity of reasoning we may say that God is both 
Esse and Existere, for an Esse must have an Existere, and there 
can be no Existere without an Esse by which it is sustained. 
But the Esse, as applied to God, cannot be a derivative, for there 
can be no higher, or prior principle from which He could have 
been derived ; therefore, He says of Himself, I AM THAT I 
AM; the First and the Last; the Beginning and the End ; the 
Alpha and Omega. I here use the term Esse and Existere to 
designate the Infinite Jehovah, who is the primal cause and source 
of all things. There is a distinction here to be made between 
essence and Esse, and also between existence and Existere; for 
an essence is derivative, containing the essential qualities of that 
from which it is derived ; whereas, Existere is that which gives 
birth to existence, — the Esse ultimates itself through the Existere, 
whence is derived all existence. Therefore, both substance and 
form are properties belonging to God, without which there could 
be no substance or form, any more than there could be love and 
wisdom without these qualities first existing in Him. It is a law 
of God, growing out of His own Existere, that only inherent 
qualities are the outgrowth of any distinct entity. Grapes do not 
grow from thorns, nor figs from thistles ; no more would substance 
and form spring from that which possessed neither. But man 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 89 

having been made in the image and likeness of God ; (image cor- 
responding to the Esse or substance ; and likeness to the Existere, 
or form ;) thus possesses in a finite degree all the inherent qualities 
ef both. 

In man's efforts to comprehend the Infinity of God, the great 
error has been in not properly distinguishing between the infini- 
tude of principle and mere magnitude. To me no error can be 
greater than to say that God per se pervades all things by filling 
all space, — an error which has had much to do in warping the 
minds of such as were predisposed to religious skepticism. But 
we may logically and safely assume that the principles radiating 
from Him know no limits. There is a wide difference between 
the infinite potency of principles, and infinite extension of dimen- 
sions. The potency of the principles of our Lord Jesus Christ 
has filled the earth, and for aught we know, the entire universe ; 
but His personality was circumscribed to that of a mere man. The 
dimensions of the Sun, in comparison to space is extremely small ; 
but from it emanates an influence which is probably felt to the 
utmost verge of space. Intensify the same principle to an infinite 
degree, and we may have some conception how it is that God is 
infinite in all His properties or attributes, and at the same time in 
His Personality possesses the human form and size, as when He 
manifested Himself to Moses and in Judea. If we keep in mind 
the fact that quality is not an attribute of quantity, but of condi- 
tions, we shall find no difficulty in ascribing creation, however vast 
and diversified, to God, though in statue He may not exceed the 
human form. 

From this brief analysis I draw the conclusion that Spirit is the 
essence from the Divine Esse, and that Matter is the existence from 
the Divine Existere, — that God gave birth to these two principles 
of His Infinitude at one and the same time, and that through 
them He maintains the order of creation. I shall, therefore, 
denominate Spirit to be life; and Matter the form that contains it, 
both having their origin in God ; and became creative in virtue of 
their relationship to Him ; or, in other words, God operates through 
them to effect successive creations, each generic species in their 
own order. Allowing Adam and Eve to have been the first of 
our race, it will not be disputed that each of their descendants, 
however far removed from the primal stock, contain all of the 
qualities, varying only in degree, of their progenitors. So, upon 
the same principles, we may say, that all Spirit and Matter contains 



90 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the rudimental qualities of their Great Progenitor. Their lowest 
forms may be denominated the first embryonic state, which grad- 
ually unfolds through successive orders, until it reaches man, as its 
final goal, where, when in divine order, they take on the acknowl* 
edged relationship of the sons of God. 

I have just said that Spirit is life, and as all life is derived from 
God, there is no escaping the conclusion that it contains the germ 
of all the Divine qualities, in whatever department of nature it may 
be found. These become more and more manifest as Matter 
becomes more and more sublimated in successively taking on higher 
conditions ; the same spiritual principle originally contained in the 
rock, finally blooming into manhood, — the rock being at one 
extreme of nature and man at the other. The contrast between 
these two conditions is so great that we fail to associate them. 
Nevertheless, we here find the operation of the same law that gov- 
erns reproduction in each generic species, differing only in extent 
of range. Take for example the human sperm. In this vesicle 
liquid are contained all the properties of the fluids and solids, in 
their almost endless diversified forms which go to make up the 
entire human organism, and in addition to this, an immortal Spirit, 
with all its varied faculties and powers. 

This fluid is derived directly from the human organism ; the 
human organism from the vegetable ; the vegetable from the earth ; 
the earth is debrised rock ; the primary condition of all Matter. 
Thus far the atheist is correct in his reasoning from Nature. But 
as from nothing, nothing can proceed, so if Matter had no divine 
connection, it could have no sustaining Spirit, and consequently, no 
reproductive principle ; nay, more, it could not even exist in a 
tangible form, for it could have no cohesive force, it being a uni- 
versal law that if the soul is removed, the body loses its identity. 
But even allowing that it had inherent reproductive properties, it 
could become prolific only of its own static condition, without any 
possibility of a successive order of improvement. But so far from 
such being the case, we And that the law of progress is everywhere 
in active operation, and the successive gradation appears to be the 
general order of Nature ; and the struggle in Matter for a higher 
condition is no less observable than that of mind. The debris of 
the rock possesses all the chemical ingredients, so far as analysis 
can detect, and as has also just been shown from logical deductions, 
that are contained in organic life ; but it is not in a condition to 
sustain animation, even in the lowest orders of animals. Its first 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 91 

productions are the mosses and lichens, the lowest in the scale of 
vegetable existence ; and these decaying, prepare the soil for the 
next in order ; and so on, until it is capable of producing the 
sponge and other analogous substances which grow upon the land, 
which are the lowest animal life. These, in their decay, prepare 
the earth for the next in order, and so on, until finally it becomes 
fit for the abode of man. It is believed by many atheistical minds 
that man was developed upward from, instead of through the brute 
creation ; and that, in virtue of having his parentage in the animal, 
he contains the qualities of all below him. But to me it appears 
more reasonable to suppose that the various grades of organic life 
were instituted to mature certain qualities which go to make up the 
constitution of man, and to i^rogress the material elements as the 
necessary preliminary conditions to prepare them for his subsistence 
as a distinct entity, and in order to do this the Creator has wisely 
instituted the various classes of animals, some one of which corres- 
ponds with each human faculty, the reasoning and spiritual excep- 
ted, and which distinguish man from all other terrestrial creatures, 
these being a discrete degree higher than instinct, deriving their 
sustenance from a condition of life which is above the animal, viz.: 
a conscious conjunction with God. Or, we may say that Nature is 
the matrix, where the divine germ is gestated, passing through all 
the successive and intermediate varieties of existence, and is fully 
born only when it reaches man, — man being the ultimate evolution 
of all organic and inorganic life. 

One remarkable fact in Nature is, that each separate department 
is typical of the whole ; therefore, when we learn the law in an 
individual instance, we have the rule of operation in every other. 
No creatures below man have any conception of their parentage, or 
to what end they tend ; but groveling upon the earth, the visible 
horizon being to them the boundaries of creation, with no object 
in view, other than to gratify their instinct, which affords them no 
information whether they are to enjoy it for an hour or forever. 
So with man. The human embryo is implanted in the womb as 
the centre and boundary of its universe, drawing therefrom its 
daily sustenance and delights, remaining fixed as regards its rela- 
tive maternal locality ; while, at the same time, revolving amid, 
other human beings, all unknown to itself, without the least per- 
ception of its origin or destiny. While in this condition there 
appears to be no preeminence over the brute, and even for some 
time subsequent to birth, man is less gifted in physical strength 



92 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

and instinct than the lower animals. But to yield obedience to 
the Spiritual laws, and to govern his life in accordance to the dic- 
tations of an enlightened conscience. Up to this period, instinct 
or intuition are the only governing principles in each individual 
entity : but now he comes in possession of those higher gifts which 
render him an accountable and rational being, and subjects him to 
the Divine Paternal dictation. Pope says : 

" And reason raise o'er instinct as you can, 
In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis man." 

The error of this statement is here apparent ; for reason is as 
much a derivative principle from the Divine Masculine as instinct 
is from the Divine Feminine. It is true that man has the ability 
through the freedom granted him, to misdirect the order of reason, 
but not to originate it. 

Whatever exists had its birth from the Infinite Progenitor, and 
must, to a greater or less extent, partake of His qualities ; there- 
fore, in order to learn the laws which govern creation as a macro- 
cosm we have only to learn them upon our own plane as a micro- 
cosm. The male is the fecundating, and the female the productive 
principle. These are opposite in condition, but cooperative in 
action, thus embodying within themselves the universal law of 
co-opposites. During gestation there is no direct connection between 
the embryo and the male parent, only through the female. But 
his office is to sustain the mother, and by so doing, he sustains the 
embryonic being to which he has given existence ; for his influence 
is as effectually conveyed through her to it, (so long as she sustains 
a proper relation to him,) as if he were carrying it in his own 
person. In fact, it is a well established physiological law, that 
influences foreign to the mother are more powerful in changing 
the condition of the embryo while in utero-gestation than those 
inherent in her own constitution. For this reason, on the one 
hand, malformations or monstrosities are frequently the result of a 
single and instantaneous impression made upon the mother, which 
so changes the whole vital currents of her system as to cause them 
to make irregular depositee in the embryo ; while on the other, a 
hi oh degree of perfection is attained for the future being by prop- 
erly shielding her during this period from all disorderly conditions 
and reflections. It will therefore be seen that the mother is 
dependent upon conditions external to herself for the proper 
development of the germ already in her keeping ; and that the 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 93 

father is the direct sustaining principle of the mother, and through 
her, the indirect of the yet undeveloped fruit of the two. The 
direct influence of the father upon the child, commences when the 
latter -has reached a condition that enables it to comprehend its 
relationship to the former and his right to control. 

Now let us apply this principle to Spirit and Matter, and to Man 
as their ultimate fruit. The analogy between the macrocosm and 
the microcosm appears to me to be complete, for it is clearly evident 
that they are both governed by the same universal law of co-o^o- 
site action. Therefore, to say that Spirit is the positive and the 
begetting principle ; and that matter is the receptive and fruit-bear- 
ing principle, is to utter a simple truism which philosophers have 
hitherto failed to discover. Here divine order prevails, for they 
have not yet reached the plane of moral inversion ; but they 
mingle in one perpetual embrace ; Spirit pervading, fructifying and 
sustaining Matter, while she prolifically bears the fruit of their union. 
Here again, through all the successive changes and gradations in 
Nature, the begetter sustains no direct connection with the begot- 
ten only through the medium of the maternal principle, until 
Man, with unfolding intellectual faculties and quickened moral 
perceptions, is introduced. Through these the Spirit forms a direct 
connection with him, and demands obedience to its behests. Now, 
for the first time, through all of the successive stages of progress, the 
contest between the divine and the clamorings of the individual 
self-hood commences. Wilfully ignorant, fractious and wayward, 
man opposes his own highest good, while at the same time God 
holds over his miscreant head the rod of His chastisement. Stand- 
ing amid, though at the head, of the brute creation, with all of their 
passions and propensities focalized in himself, and which struggle 
to maintain dominion instead of willingly becoming subordinate to 
the promptings of the Spirit which now directly connects with his 
higher organization, a perpetual war is waged between them, the 
victory finally turning upon the side of the loves of the individual. 
If these become purified through this terrible contest with man's 
spiritual forces during his sojourn on earth, then he is crowned as 
victor and enters into an inheritance that is incorruptible and 
undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for him. 
But, on the contrary, if the passions are allowed to subjugate the 
plane of the Spirit to their disorderly use, the very forces which the 
Creator mercifully designed as the greatest and crowning blessing 



94 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

to man, being converted into disorder, becomes in him an inex- 
haustible source of misery. 

Let us draw an illustration from another department of Nature. 
The Sun and the Earth sustain the relationship of Spirit and Matter 
to each other.* The Earth, by her annual declinations, turns to 
the Sun, bears her bosom to his fondest caresses and becomes 
impregnated with his actinic forces. New life and animation is 
now imparted to her. The ice-bound streams burst forth and 
circulate with new vigor through every vein and artery of her 
being. She puts on the robes of spring and adorns herself with a 
chaplet of flowers. The lowing herd, the frolicking young, and 
the caroling songster, all mingle their myriad voices in one uni- 
versal pcean of joy over an era that shall again make fruitful the 
womb of Nature. Having become surcharged by the dynamic 
power of the Sun, still sustained by his influence, she again, day by 
day, gradually turns away that she may be enabled to more effect- 
ually mature the fruits of their union. Repose is now needful. 
For a while she slumbers upon the bosom of her lord, that she may 
renew her strength by absorbing his forces, and then again awakes 
to receive his embrace. Or we may take a still more lofty and indi- 
vidualized view of the subject. The Moon, begotten by the Sun, is 
the first born of the Earth and is still nursed upon the maternal 
bosom, drawing its illuminating properties from the Sun through the 
medium of the Earth, as the infant from the father, through the 
mother. It is yet a babe in the planetary world, fondly clinging to 
the. embrace of her who gave it birth, alternating its time between 
slumbering in the repose of darkness, and joyfully beaming with its 
round full face upon its mother. O, the beauty and grandeur of 
Nature when unperverted by sin ! " The heavens declare the glory 
of God ; and the firmament sheweth his handy-work. Day unto 
day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. 
There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." \ 

*It is not here pretended to say that the Sun is not a material substance, but that 
it holds the same relation to the solar system that Spirit does to Matter, or Man to 
Woman. Man is not less material in his physical structure than woman ; never- 
theless he is the fecundating party, both mentally and physically ; while at the 
same time they are reciprocally dependent upon each other for their existence. So 
likewise, I believe that the sun is as much dependent upon the orbs that revolve 
round it for its illuminating properties as these orbs are upon the sun for their pro- 
lific qualities. This subject will be more fully discussed in the chapter on 
Marriage as a Principle. 

tPsalm 19 : 1—3. 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 95 

From what has now been said, we may infer that the first 
principles of Spirit and Matter reside in God, — that they are the 
objective sphere, proceeding from the Infinite conjugial* subjective 
principles of Love and Wisdom. This sphere being infinite in its 
origin, is also infinite in its objective existence, so that in Nature, 
throughout boundless space, Spirit and Matter are conjugially 
united as are Love and Wisdom in God. It first, gives birth to 
the planets and their successive orders of family relationship ; 
second, to the positive and negative stratas of mineral deposits upon 
each which give rise to the magnetic currents ; third, to light 
and heat ; fourth, to the vegetable and animal kingdoms ; and 
fifth, to man and woman, as the final culmination of these forces. 

Swedenborg says, that " the conjugial sphere is received by the 
female, and through that sex is transferred into the male. Where 
love truly conjugial is, this sphere is received by the wife, and only 
through the wife by the husband." To me it is clearly evident 
that in this he is only partly correct, for the conjugial sphere is 
made up of two principles, viz.: Love and Wisdom, and only one 
of these principles preeminently belong to the wife, or negative 
party. But if he means by the " conjugial " simply the cohesive 
principle, which is love, in whatever department of Nature, then 
the correctness of his position is freely granted. The negative is 
always on the side of the material, and the positive of the spiritual ; 
and marriage is the blending of the two. Therefore, to say that 
these ascend through woman to man, is without a rational founda- 
tion, for as the positive and negative electrical currents pass through 
any intervening substance in two opposite directions, and unite 
with each other, so the wife's love conjoins itself to the wisdom of 
the husband, and his wisdom to her love. In this sense they 
became one, which constitutes the conjugial sphere. This sphere 
in the individual consists in the unien of the propensities with the 
moral sentiments, the former yielding subordination to the latter, 
and these to God ; the conjugiality between the sexes is the result 
of the individual conjugiality ; nor can it exist without it, for the 

* I shall make frequent use of the word conjugial in place of conjugal ; as the 
etymology of the former is more appropriate to many forms of expression, and 
more fully conveys the idea than the latter. Conjugialis is derived through 
conjugium, {marriage and conjux — a married partner,) from conjungo, which signifies 
to conjoin; whereas, conjugalis is from conjugo, which signifies to yoke together. 
One implies a spontaneous commingling or blending; the other an arbitrary cohe- 
rence or connection. Furthermore, conjugial is a softer and more pleasing adjec- 
tive to use in designating the higher or more interior relation of things. 



96 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

conjugial principle, per se, is a divine principle, and can be main- 
tained between the sexes, only in the degree as it is maintained in 
the individual parties. No sooner does the impulses gain the 
ascendancy over the sentiments, than the conjugial principle becomes 
inverted in its action, and thus destroyed as to any divine quality ; 
whence it is transformed from love into a lust. In its divine condition 
it expends its forces only in use; but in its lustful condition it seeks 
to gratify individual appetites regardless of use, and without refer- 
ence to the rights of others. Socially, woman holds the relationship 
to man that the propensities do to the individual. And man and 
woman in their united capacity, hold the relation to the Humanity 
of our Lord, that woman does to man. Hence, there are three suc- 
cessive degrees of marriage ; first, in the individual ; second, 
between the sexes ; third, the sexes as a unit with the Lord. 

Hence, we arrive at the conclusion that the Love principle 
proper, ascends up through all the successive grades of materiality, 
and finally through woman to man, — the circle of conjugial forces 
being consummated between the two. . Up to the human, all forces 
are merely physical, rather than moral ; so that Spirit and Matter 
uniformly maintain an orderly relation with each other, except so 
far as they are influenced by man, — the wisdom principle every- 
where directing the force, while love becomes the incentive to 
effort. But wisdom proper, is first manifested in man. It is not 
here pretended to say but what woman has wisdom as well as man ; 
but it being a masculine principle, it is only the male qualities in 
her that in any degree possess it. So on the other hand, man has 
love ; but this being a feminine principle, he possesses it only in the 
degree of his feminine characteristics. It is the harmonious rela- 
tion of the two in the same individual that produces the most 
noticeable and worthy characters. Our Lord standing at the head of 
mankind perfectly blended the two principles within himself, and 
afforded us the only example of perfected humanity. 

The conjugal principle, therefore, as it impulsively exists in 
Nature, ascends through woman to man ; but as it rationally exists 
in the Divine, descends through man to woman. The contest in 
the human constitution is between these two principles ; but only 
in their deranged condition ; for in every orderly relation of life, 
whether in the individual or between the sexes, love, though it 
prompts to action, is ever designed to sustain a negative relation to 
wisdom. Hence St. Paul admonishes that wives should be subject 
unto their own husband in all things, but immediately adds that he 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 97 

is speaking of Christ and the church ; thus showing that every- 
where in the moral universe, the negative principle should ever 
sustain a subordinate relation to the positive, — the emotions to the 
rationality ; the wife or rather the wifely principle, to the husband 
or husbandly principle ; and man to God. 

The distinction between marriage on the plane of nature, and 
as a religious institution, is here apparent. Throughout universal 
nature, below the plane of rationality, it is simply a relation of 
Spirit; and Matter, ever assuming a higher and more conscious 
phase of impulse until it reaches man, where all the instinctive or 
impulsive forces of Nature converge to meet the Divine in an 
eternal embrace. Here we have the highest form of nuptials that 
is possible to exist ; the Divine on the one hand, with all of His 
infinite principles and beatitudes ; the Human on the other, with 
the lawful dowery of all the convergent forces of creation. And 
what God requires of man is that he should hold these forces in 
subordination to the divine precepts, — that the delights of the carnal 
should give place to the infinitely more glorious delights springing 
from a receptivity of heaven ; for heaven really consists in the su- 
premacy of the sentiments over the impulses ; hell in the supremacy 
of the impulses over the sentiments. But the stronger the impulses, 
if maintained in divine order, the more intense is the enjoyment 
and the more potent is the wisdom. I never saw any one with 
too much intensity of feeling, but, alas, with too little discretion. 

Woman, as such, stands as the representative of the emotional 
principle ; so does the Divine Humanity in reference to the 
Supreme Divinity. Woman's impulses spring from the useful 
ardency of her nature, and thus only need the directing influence 
of wisdom to enable them to fill their divinely appointed mission. 
" Jesus wept," but it was a holy weeping, and this emotion became 
the basis into which the resurrective power descended and Lazarus 
came forth. 

There is much danger of not being understood on this point. 
It is not intended to say that woman is made up of more gross or 
material substance than man ; but on the contrary, her elements 
are more delicate, sensitive, and refined. If Matter, as I have 
previously shown, is a congealed form of principles which had their 
origin in God, it will be seen that its first or primeval condition is 
in no way inferior, though by a divine arrangement, subordinate 
to Spirit. And what is more, man and woman are made up of the 
same material substances, only differing in relative proportions 



98 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

which institute a reversed action ; so that, relatively, one stands 
over opposite against the other. But, as was shown in the first 
division of this chapter, in their separate capacity or distinct 
entities, they are each hermaphrodite, containing the primal prin- 
ciples of both sexes within themselves. Individually^ one part of 
their nature holding a positive relation to the other; and relatively, 
where man is positive woman is negative ; and where woman is 
positive man is negative ; so that, in an orderly condition, every 
department of their natures are most perfectly balanced by each 
other; thereby precluding all idea of preeminence or inferiority ; 
but each, like the heart and lungs, filling two distinct offices ; but 
at the same time mutually dependent upon each other. The heart 
is the seat of life on the Material side, but the lungs is the seat of 
life on the Spiritual side, — one the receptacle and distributor of 
the fluids, and the other the receptacle and imparter of those 
gasses which are essential to the system ; but there is no preeminence 
of one over the other. The latter are the receptacles of the 
oxygen from the atmosphere, which it imparts directly to the arte- 
rial blood, and establishes a condition in it which enables it to yield 
fruitful deposits. In this sense, they are the fecundators of the 
body ; but the former is the receptacle and distributor of all the 
vital forces of the system, thus, the immediate creator of the body 
acted upon by the lungs. So, in a corresponding manner, woman 
is the receptacle of the divine feminine, which flows up through 
Nature, but man is the receptacle of the divine masculine, which 
flows down through heaven ; but these only in relative degrees. 

But in a still higher sense, in virtue of their individually pos- 
sessing both the masculine and feminine principles within them- 
selves, they are immediately and directly receptacles of both the 
Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, — woman preeminently of 
the former, and man of the latter. Through love the Lord 
descends to inspire the bridegroom, but the bride is the medium 
through whom the descent is accomplished. Through wisdom the 
Lord descends to first awaken and then increase the love of the 
bride, but the bridegroom is the medium through whom the descent 
is accomplished. Wisdom is the fecundating and quickening prin- 
ciple of love. Love is the generating and inspiring principle of 
wisdom. In all orderly conditions the love of the wife is as the wis- 
dom of the husband, and the wisdom of the husband is as the love 
of the wife. They are co-opposite but co-equal principles. 



SPIRIT AND MATTER. 99 

This, however, is not the place to enlarge upon this subject ; 
but the reader is referred to the chapter on Marriage. 

III. Their equilibrium is the balance of power. 

Assuming the views set forth in the two previous divisions of 
this chapter to be well founded, there will remain but little to be 
said under this head ; for if Spirit and Matter are reciprocally 
dependent upon each other, and constitute the positive and negative 
forces of Nature, it will require no argument to demonstrate that 
their equilibrium is the balance of power. It would be difficult for 
the mind to conceive of any department of nature that is not main- 
tained in its order by their reciprocal action. It is through the 
affinity of these two principles that the centripital and centrifigal 
forces are made to govern the movements of the planetary systems, 
to hold them in their family relationship ; and that the polarity and 
the gravitative force of each becomes established, by which creation 
is made to yield her periodic productions and hold all things in 
their relative position to each other. The movements and changes 
of the atmosphere, — the rising mist and the falling shower, — the 
tempest and the calm, — the ebb and flow of the tides, — the moving 
stream and the ocean currents, — day and night, — summer and 
winter, — seed-time and harvest, — the tropics and the arctics, — and 
every other phenomenon in nature, have their birth from the love 
which Spirit and Matter have for each other. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. - 

We now open upon one of the most intricate and important 
subjects connected with the interest of mankind, — those occult 
forces which make up the warp and woof of every individual's life, 
and shapes the affairs of the world. From the time that man is 
conceived, to the end of his earthly pilgrimage, he is continually 
brought in contact with influences and human spheres, each of 
which have a greater or less bearing upon his destiny, and which 
go to make up the sum total of his nature, character and influence. 
The commerce of human spheres is as perpetual and unlimited as the 
associations of mankind. Their operations, though unseen, are po- 
tent in their effects upon each other. The most momentous results 
often spring from apparently the most insignificant causes. Every 
word spoken, every act performed, and every touch made, tells for 
weal or woe upon others. All that is said or done conveys with it 
the condition of the individual. And moreover all persons are 
conjunctive mediums for either good or evil. They not only con- 
vey their own condition but that of all with whom they connect. 
The orbs of the planetary system do not have a stronger influence 
upon each other than do individuals upon those with whom they 
associate, — mind is more than matter. A single thought or word 
may become the pivot of the revolution of a nation, and its effects 
sweep on in its erratic course through all coming ages. 

The laws of connection clearly demonstrates that history is not a 
mere mass of inorganic names, dates and facts ; but spirit and 
life, each event of which is all powerful in its effects, and though 
the act may be forgotten, its spirit lives on forever. Conception, 
once having taken place, there is no cessation in development ; 
always true to its own essence, it incorporates into each successive 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. 101 

stage of growth, the results of the preceding. Inconceivably small 
as the germ may be, the man, with all of his immortal powers, is 
but the full unfolding of the beginning. Trifling and unimportant 
as an event may seem, it may be the God-appointed means of 
accomplishing results far surpassing all human conception ; each 
successive event legitimately growing out of the preceding, and in 
its turn giving birth to new conditions, and these to still others, 
thus widening and multiplying, until all mankind shall become 
involved in the fruition of its final results. 

Eve's first assent to the wrong broke the barriers to virtue, and 
for six thousand years the world has been deluged with moral evil. 
The dream of Joseph was the commencement of a long and innu- 
merable train of events which have filled the pages of history with 
the rise and fall of empires, the establishment and overthrow of 
dynasties ; and now, after the lapse of three thousand six hundred 
years, so far from having spent its force, it has spread its influence 
throughout the w^orld, and will live and operate through all coming 
ages. David, the unassuming shepherd boy, in being sent to enquire 
after the welfare of his brethren, decided the contest of nations. 
How truly marvelous are the works of God ! and how compara- 
tively insignificant the means He uses, to alike accomplish the most 
common and the most stupendous results. 

Croesus, the king of Lydia, while in his most prosperous days, 
when the splendor and opulence of his court, and the luxurious 
magnificence of his kingdom, was scarcely surpassed by that of 
Babylon, was visited by Solon, a Grecian philosopher, of whom he 
inquired if he did not think him to be a happy man. Solon answer- 
ed that he could not tell whether he was happy, till he heard of his 
death ; which reply greatly excited the king's indignation, and 
caused him to order Solon from his presence. Cyrus subsequently 
conquered Croesus and made him his prisoner, and according to the 
ancient barbarous custom, ordered him to be burned to death. He 
was accordingly bound on the pile, which was set on fire. While 
the flames were approaching the unfortunate victim, he suddenly 
recollected the words of Solon, and being now forcibly struck with 
their justness, he cried out, "0 Solon! Solon !" This was told to 
Cyrus, who immediately demanded an explanation. Whereupon, 
Croesus related to him the circumstances of his interview with Solon, 
and concluded by saying, that "He will now hear of my death, and 
will indeed pronounce me an unhappy man." Cyrus, powerfully 
affected with the fickleness of fortune, and the changes to which 



102 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. - 

men are liable, ordered the royal captive unbound, and restored 
him to his favor, and reinstated in his dominions as a tributary 
prince. The response of Solon, though it exasperated the king, 
conveyed with it an element that finally saved Croesus from an 
ignominious and most painful death. Solon was unconsciously made 
the instrument to effect more for Croesus than all of his subjects 
were enabled to do ; and this, solely by the justness of his reply to 
a vain interrogation. 

Catholicism. 

During the three first centuries of the present era, the Chris- 
tians met with severe persecutions. The Romans had become lax 
in their morals, and were tolerant of the heathen forms of worship 
amongst other nations, as is apparent from the fact that they 
adopted not only the mythology of the Greeks, but also, by degrees 
the theology of the East, of the Chaldeans, Persians, Egyptians, 
and Syrians. But as Christianity forbade any combination with 
Paganism, the Christians carefully avoided all participation in the 
feasts and religious rights of the heathen, and kept themselves 
separate even in the daily intercourse of life ; hence, the hatred of 
the people and the mistrust of their rulers were roused, and heavy 
persecutions arose against them. Many of them were put to 
death, and others were obliged to conceal themselves in subter- 
raneous passages, (the Catacombs,) near the graves of those they 
loved, and in caves and mountain clefts. Their lands and places 
of public worship were confiscated to the use of the Roman gov- 
ernment, or to sustain the magical arts, or to promote idolatrous 
worship. Decius and Diocletian exerted to their full extent, their 
regal power against the Christians. And even the noble-minded 
Marcus Aurelius thought it his duty to break by force the stub- 
bornness of the supposed fanatics. But notwithstanding all this 
popular opposition and legal force brought to bear against Chris- 
tianity, it rapidly spread, by the indwelling power of truth, so that 
it soon overstepped the bounds of the Roman empire. 

The great charter of toleration to the Christians, known as the 
edict of Milan, was instituted by Constantine the great, and 
received the reluctant acquiescence of his colleague Licinius, 
A. D. 313. 

Constantine possessed undaunted courage, boundless ambition, 
and such cruel revenge, that he spared neither his aged father-in- 
law, Maximian, his own wife, Fausta, nor his own children; Cris- 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. 103 

pus, his only son by his first wife Minervina, fell a victim, though 
innocent of any offence, to his jealousies. The Roman people at 
length became so incensed at his cruelty, that they wrote a satiri- 
cal poem and affixed it to the palace-gate, comparing the splendid 
and bloody reigns of Constantine and Nero. And there is much 
reasonable doubt of his having embraced Christianity for any 
higher object than to promote his own selfish ends. Be this as it 
may, it is morally certain that while the influence of his regal 
position was of the utmost importance in staying the persecutions 
against the church, his moral character would have done no honor 
to a society of barbarians. Nevertheless, he possessed many noble 
and virtuous qualities. He preserved his constitution by a strict 
adherence to chastity and temperance ; and on several occasions 
showed himself to be capable of warm and lasting friendship. 
But his better nature seemed to be greatly eclipsed by his ambition. 

Licinius was one of the most perfidious and inhuman tyrants. 
He put to death the two orphan children of Maximian, who, neither 
they nor their father, had ever done him the least injury. " But 
the execution of Candidianus was an act of the blackest cruelty 
and ingratitude. He was the natural son of Galerious, the friend 
and benefactor of Licinius. The prudent father had judged him 
too young to sustain the weight of a diadem ; but he hoped that, 
under the protection of princes who were indebted to his favor for 
the Imperial purple, Candidianus might pass a secure and honor- 
able life. He was now advancing towards the twentieth year of 
his age, and the royalty of his birth, though unsupported by merit or 
ambition, was sufficient to exasperate the jealous mind of Licinius."* 

After the perpetration of this inhuman crime, he beheaded 
Prisca and Valeria, the wife and daughter of Diocletia, and caused 
their bodies to be thrown into the sea. Prisca had early adopted 
Candidianus, and after his execution, she, with her daughter 
Valeria, fled the presence of the blood thirsty Licinius, and wan- 
dered above fifteen months through the provinces, concealed in the 
disguise of plebian habits, to escape the doom which they foresaw 
awaited them. " We lament," says Gibbon, " their misfortunes, 
we cannot discover their crimes, and whatever idea we may justly 
entertain of the cruelty of Licinius, it remains a matter of surprise 
that he was not contented with some more secret and decent 
method of revenge." 

* History of the Decline and Fall of the Eoman Empire, p. 162. 



104 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

After Constantine and Licinius had murdered all those from 
whom they could apprehend any danger, and towards whom they 
felt the least revenge or jealousy, they commenced war upon each 
other, and after several sanguinary battles, Licinius was conquered 
and yielded up his purple, and became himself a victim to the 
cruelty of Constantine. The death of Maximian and Licinius 
may, perhaps, be justified by the maxims of policy, as they are 
taught in the school of tyrants ; but an impartial narrative of the 
executions, or rather murders, which sullied the declining age of 
Constantine, will suggest to our most candid thoughts, the idea of 
a prince who could sacrifice without reluctance the laws of justice, 
and the feelings of nature, to the dictates either of his passions or 
of his interest. His conduct most clearly showed that he, like 
other wicked and inhuman tyrants, was more frequently influenced 
by views of temporal advantage and selfish policy, than by a sense 
of humanity or justice. Such being the case, it is no unwarrant- 
able assumption to say that he held a much stronger connection 
w^ith Pandemonium than with Heaven, and that Satan, artfully 
transformed into an angel of light, was the instigator ot all his 
actions, and the immediate source of all his inspirations. 

Under the auspicious influence of these two men, the Church 
and State were united. Here was where the Dragon gave power 
to the Beast, which soon matured, so that within the space of two 
centuries, he began to speak great things and blasphemies, making 
war against the saints and exalted himself above all that is called 
God. "And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come 
down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth 
them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which 
he had power to do in the sight of the beast."* Profane history 
fully confirms the truth of the statement of the Revelator. The 
multitude and importance of the miracles of the monks soon claimed 
to exceed those of the apostles, the martyrs, and even the Lord 
Jesus Christ. The Christian world fell prostrate before the shrine 
of these resant and popular Anchorites ; and the miracles ascribed 
to their relics exceeded, at least in number and duration, the 
spiritual exploits of their lives. These pretended favorites of 
heaven were accustomed to cure inveterate diseases with a touch, 
a word, or a distant message ; and to expel the most obstinate 
demons from the souls, or bodies, which they possessed. They 
familiarly accosted, or imperiously commanded, the lions and ser- 

*Rev. 13 : 13, 14. 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. 105 

pents of the desert ; infused vegetation into a sapless trunk ; 
suspended iron on the surface of the water ; passed the Nile on the 
back of a crocodile, and refreshed themselves in a fiery furnace. 
Bishop Augustine, in the early part of the fifteenth century, enu- 
merates above seventy miracles, of which three were resurrec- 
tions from the dead, all within the space of two years, and within 
his own diocese. 

The most extravagant reports have reached us of the numerous 
and astonishing miracles claimed b}' the Catholic Church to have 
been peribrmed by Francis Xavier, a Spanish missionary, surnamed 
the ajoostle of the Indies, who was born in 1506, in the castle of 
Xania at the foot of the Pyrenees. While he exercised his zeal in 
Travancere, God first communicated to him the gift of tongues, 
according to the relation of a young Portuguese of Coimbra, named 
Vaz, who attended him in many of his jonrneys. He spoke the 
language of those barbarians without having learned it, and had no 
need of an interpreter when he instructed them. Diseases of all 
descriptions readily yielded to his influence. When he could not 
attend in person he frequently sent some young neophyte with his 
crucifix, beads, or reliquary to touch the sick, after having recited 
with him the Lord's prayer, creed, and commandments ; and the 
sick, by declaring unfeignedly that they believed in Christ and 
desired to be baptized, received their health. 

While sailing one day among the Malacca islands, a tempest 
arose, and in order to quiet it, as they say, he touched it with his 
crucifix, the virtue of which stilled the raging of the wind and the 
sea : but to his great grief, he let the image fall into the water. 
Sometime afterwards, walking with the Portuguese on the beach, 
he saw the sacred object appear above the crest of the wave. The 
wave broke on the land and threw up a crab, holding the crucifix 
in one of his claws. Xavier stood still. The crab crawled towards 
him, carrying the cross erect, laid it at his feet, and returned to his 
native element. 

At Malacca he restored to life a young man named Francis 
Ciavas, who afterwards took the habit of the society. During the 
ceremonies of his canonization, mention is made of four dead per- 
sons to whom God restored life at this time, by the ministry of his 
servant. The first was a catechist, who had been stung by a 
serpent of that kind whose stings are always mortal ; the second 
was a child who was drowned in a pit ; the third and fourth, a 
young man and maid, whom pestilential fever had carried off. In 



106 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Japan, by his blessing, a child's body, which was swelled and 
deformed, was made straight and beautiful ; and by his prayers a 
leper was healed, and a pagan young maid of quality, that had been 
dead a whole day was' raised to life. 

He died at Sancian, a Portuguese smuggling station on the 
coast of China, December 2d, 1552. His corpse was interred on 
Sunday, being laid, after the Chinese fashion, in a large chest 
which was filled with unslacked lime, to the end that the flesh 
being consumed, the bones might be carried to Goa. On the 17th 
of February, 1553, the grave was opened to see if the flesh was 
consumed ; but the lime being taken off the face it was found 
ruddy and fresh colored as that of a man who is in sweet repose. 
The body was in like manner whole, and the natural moisture 
uncorrupted ; and the flesh being a little cut in the thigh, the blood 
was seen to run from the wound. The sacerdotal habits in which 
this saint was buried, were no way endamaged by the lime ; and 
the holy corpse exhaled an odor so fragrant and delightful that 
the most exquisite perfumes came nothing near it. The sacred 
remains were carried into the ship, and brought to Malacca on the 
22d of March, where they were received with great honor. The 
pestilence which, for some weeks, had laid waste the town, on a 
sudden ceased. The body was interred in a damp church-yard ; 
yet in August was found entire, fresh, and still exhaling a sweet 
odor ; and being honorably put in. a ship, was translated to Goa, 
where it was received and placed in the church of the college of 
St. Paul, on the 15th of March, 1554; upon which occasion 
several blind persons received their sight, and others sick of palsies 
and other diseases, their health and the use of their limbs. By an 
order of John V., King of Portugal, the archbishop of Goa, 
attended by the viceroy, the marquis of Castle Nuovo, in 1744, — 
a hundred and ninety-two years subsequent to his death, — per- 
formed a visitation of the relics of St. Francis Xavier; at which 
time the body was found without the least bad smell, and seemed 
environed with a kind of shining brightness, and the face, hands, 
breast, and feet, had not suffered the least alteration or symptoms 
of corruption. 

When we take into consideration the history of Xavier's early 
life, his excessive ambition for popular fame, and his thorough 
cooperation in the Inquisition in its most horrid cruelties, by 
heartily lending to it his personal services, we are stripped, not 
only of all faith in triere being any divinity connected with his 



I 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. 107 

transactions, but are forced to the conclusion that he was either a 
deluded, or a hypocritical Jesuit, fulfilling the prediction of the 
Revelator, in worshiping the " great whore," who " was arrayed 
in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious 
stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hands full of abomi- 
nation and filthiness of her fornication, and upon whose forehead 
was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the 
Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth, and 
who was drunk with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood 
of the martyrs of Jesus."* 

It may be set down as a law of the human constitution that 
every transaction partakes of the influence under which it is per- 
formed, — the psychological condition of the actor is permanently 
infused into the act, so that to establish a sect or institution is to con- 
nect it with the spirit of the author, which becomes' as immortal as 
the sect or institution itself. This law, hitherto but little under- 
stood, will account for much in history and daily observation, that 
has long perplexed mankind. The peculiar combination of Con- 
stantine and Licinius was well calculated to wed all the baser pas- 
sions with the church. Satan could not have chosen more effectual 
agents. Licinius, as has just been shown, was one of the basest 
and most perfidious of men ; but in power and spirit, subordinate to 
Constantine. He was too low to ever have reached the church, 
directly, without an intermediate. Constantine possessed the two 
extremes of character. On the worst side of his nature he could 
cooperate with Licinius ; on the better side, he could affinitize 
with the church. By this means he unconsciously became the 
direct medium- of -connection between the highest and lowest prin- 
ciples. All of the despotism, dishonesty, cunning intrigue, and 
murderous cruelty of Licinius, flowed up through Constantine, 
and engrafted itself into the Catholic church, where it retained its 
active form until its power was wrested from it by Napoleon 
Bonaparte, when he partially divorced church and State, and 
effectually destroyed the power which the Dragon had given to the 
Beast. Since this period, the ineffectual efforts which the Beast 
has put forth, have only shown the weakness of its death struggles. 
Licinius' spirit still lives in the Catholic church, and will as long as 
the church continues to have an existence ; but it is shorn of its 
power. While penning this work, I purposely irritated an educat- 
ed Catholic domestic, possessing far more than ordinary intelligence, 

*Rev. 17:4-6. (See Miracles.) 



108 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

by casting somewhat severe reproach upon one of the former 
Popes. In a violent rage she instantly exclaimed : M If I had a 
weapon I would kill you upon the spot." 

The highest principles when misdirected become the most potent 
for evil. The Christian religion when wedded to the moral senti- 
ments, and guided by an enlightened intellect ever bears the 
peaceful fruits of righteousness. But wdien associated with the 
propensities while the sentiments are inactive, and the intellect is 
made subservient to the passions, it becomes the chief scourge of 
mankind. Constantine and Licinius adopted the Christian religion 
while their moral powers were subordinate to their passions. The 
fruits of this marriage was bigotry and cruelty. The same spirit 
which caused Licinius to murder the orphan children, Maximian, 
Candidianus, Prisca and Valeria ; and that induced Constantine 
to execute the Emperor Maximian, Crispus, Fausta, Licinius, and 
many others, has caused the Catholic church to destroy nearly 
sixty millions of alleged heretics. What was an ambitious 
jealousy in the two emperors became a religious intolerance in the 
Church. Persecutions and murders sanctioned by a spurious 
religion, is the most terrible of all disorders. Satan evidently saw 
that if he could unite these two principles, and at the same time 
invert their order by giving the ascendency to the passions, he 
could make the Christian religion the most effectual agent of peo- 
pling his own realm. For by this means, he not only deprives 
man of the saving qualities of religion, but causes his emissaries to 
use it to their own and their neighbors' destruction. 

No sooner had the Church received the sanction and protection 
of the State, than it began to manifest the spirit of its regal 
patrons. Instead of being the persecuted, it became the persecu- 
tor. The dragon had loaned its power to the beasts, which it soon 
confiscated to its own use, by which it obtained great authority, so 
that they worshipped both the dragon and the beast, saying, 
" Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him ? 
And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and 
blasphemies ; and power was given unto him to continue forty and 
two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against 
God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that 
dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with 
the saints, and to overcome them : and power was given him over 
all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon 
the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. 109 

the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world."* The Church now sustained the meaner passions of 
pride, avarice, and revenge, -which gave it power over all other 
earthly authority. Kings and Emperors were no longer its mas- 
ters, but its slaves. The woi;ld for a season was given into the 
hands of Satan and his prime emissaries bore chief rule. 

Constantine himself became the first active agent i n establishing 
the spirit of religious persecutions. He early adopted the opinion 
that the support of the orthodox faith was the most sacred and 
important duty of the civil magistrate. The edict of Milan, the 
great charter of toleration, had confirmed to each individual of the 
Roman world the privilege of choosing and professing his own 
religion. But this inestimable privilege was soon violated : with 
the knowledge of truth, the emperor imbibed the maxims of perse- 
cution ; and the sects which dissented from the Catholic church, 
were afflicted and oppressed by the triumph of Christianity. 
Constantine, who easily believed that the heretics, who presumed 
to dispute his opinions, or to oppose his commands, were guilty of 
the most absurd and criminal obstinacy ; and that a seasonable 
application of moderate severities might save those unhappy men 
from the danger of everlasting condemnation. Not a moment was 
lost in excluding the ministers and teachers of the separated con- 
gregations from any share of the rewards and immunities wdrich the 
emperor had so liberally bestowed on the orthodox clergy. But as 
the sectaries might still exist under the cloud of royal disgrace, the 
conquest of the East was immediately followed by an edict which 
announced their total destruction. After a preamble filled w T ith 
passion and reproach, Constantine absolutely prohibits the assemblies 
of the heretics, and confiscates their public property to the use 
either of the revenue or of the Catholic church. These persecu- 
tions were applauded by the bishops who had so recently pleaded 
for the rights of humanity. The wrongs they had endured failed 
to humble their pride or to create a spirit of toleration, and in their 
turn were glad of the opportunity of showing their resentment. It 
was clearly evident then, as now, that the Catholics were far more 
zealous in sustaining the doctrines of their church than in observing 
the practical precepts of Christ. 

Comprehending the laws' of connection we cease to wonder that 

the history of the Catholic church is made up of all those qualities 

which administer to the selfishness of mankind. Remove from its 

*Rev. 13:4-8. 
15 



110 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

pages the record of its pride and arrogance, plunder and opulence, 
and its multitudinous forms of horrid persecutions and murders, 
and there is but little remains. Could Constantine and Licinius, 
cruel as they were, have forseen the awful consequences of their 
influence floating down the current of time for fifteen centuries, 
deluging the world with blood and misery, and peopling the regions 
of the damned with deluded victims, they would have shrank from 
the fearful responsibility of bestowing power upon a sect so foreign 
to all the principles of the Christian Religion. But these men 
were themselves the parents of the inhumanity of the church 
established under their auspices. To them we trace the origin of 
the evil, intensified by the subordination of religion to the passions. 
It seems as if, that during this long period, God had abandoned 
the Church that He might demonstrate to the world the infinite 
difference between the kingdom of Satan and that of the Prince 
of Peace, w 7 hen the latter shall become fully established upon the 
earth. 

In the twelfth century the audacious impiety of the Popish 
church culminated in the daring and sacrilegious assumption of for- 
giving sins, past, present, and to come, and of peddling out licenses 
for the perpetration of every enormity in crime.* The Popes com- 
pelled kings to act as groomsmen, and the monks accumulated 
enormous wealth by their expiating prayers in behalf of princes, 
dukes, knights, and generals, whose clays had been consumed in 
debauchery and crimes, and distinguished for nothing but violent 
exploits of unbridled lust, cruelty, and avarice. In 1160 an opu- 
lent merchant of Lyons, being zealous for the advancement of true 
piety and Christian know ledge, was employed by a certain priest 
to translate from Latin into French the Four Gospels, with other 

*To justify these scandalous measures of the pontiffs, most monstrous and 
absurd doctrine was invented, which was modified and embellished by St. Thomas 
in the following century and which contained among other things the following 
enormities: — "That there actually existed an immense treasure of merit, com- 
posed of the pious deeds and virtuous actions, which the saints had performed 
beyond ivhat was necessary for their own salvation, and which were therefore applica- 
ble to the benefit of others ; that the guardian and dispenser of this precious treas- 
ure was the Roman pontiff; and that in consequence he was empowered to assign 
to such as he thought proper, a portion of this inexhaustible source of merit, suit- 
able to their respective guilt, and sufficient to deliver them from the punishment 
due to their crimes." {Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. 2, page 288) If I 
mistake not this doctrine, so absurd in its nature, and so pernicious in its effects, 
is still retained and defended in the church of Rome, offering a deplorable example 
of the power Qf superstition among the ignorant and of the terrible depravity of 
the learned. 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. Ill 

books of the Holy Scriptures, and the most important sentences of 
the ancient doctors winch were so highly esteemed in that century. 
By perusing these sacred books he soon discovered that the religion 
which was then taught in the Roman church differed totally from 
that which was originally inculcated by Christ and His apostles. 
Struck with the glaring contradiction between the doctrines of the 
pontiffs and the truths of the gospels, and animated with a pious 
zeal for promoting his own salvation and that of others, he aban- 
doned his mercantile vocation, distributed his riches among the 
poor, and forming an association with other pious men who had 
adopted his sentiments and his turn of devotion, he began in the 
year 1180, to assume the quality of a public teacher, and to 
instruct the multitude in the doctrine and precepts of Christianity.* 
This was the origin of the famous sect of Waldenses who effectu- 
ally sowed the seeds of the Reformation which germinated until 
1517 when the noble Martin Luther, w r hose piety and ability in 
every way qualified him for the daring undertaking commenced to 
reap the golden harvest. As God protected the sowers so did he 
also the reapers. Here was the true spirit of the Reformation. But 
the various sects that have since arisen have partaken quite as much 
of their immediate founders, as I shall hereafter show, as of the 
spirit of Waldus or Luther. 

George JFox. 

The Quakers, though comparatively few in numbers, offer a 
striking example of a society directly at antipodes with the Roman 
Catholics. History informs us that George Fox, the founder of 
this sect, " was a man of so meek, contented, easy, steady and tender 
disposition, that it was a pleasure to be in his company ; that he 
exerted no authority but over evil, and that every where and in all, 
but with love, compassion and long suffering." This was his 
natural character. Notwithstanding the fanatical and we may say 
insane enthusiasm of Fox and many of his early followers, it is 
clearly evident that he imparted to the society to which he gave 
birth, the principles of peace and non-resistance to such a remark- 
able degree that they early became a proverb in the world. It 
may truly be said that the apparent insanity evidently so justly 
attributed to Fox, Nayler, and several of the female members, was 
the result of an over-wrought imagination, induced by their medium- 
istic condition, — at that time but little understood, — but which 
* Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History. 



112 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

did not make up any part of their inherent constitution. Their 
pretended extraordinary messages from heaven, running about the 
streets, denouncing the judgments of God against others, Fox's fre- 
quent visions and incoherent tenets, one claiming to be inspired by 
the Holy Ghost to kill every man that sat in the house of parliament, 
a female entering stark naked in the mids| of public worship, etc., 
are conclusive evidence of the truth of this hypothesis. I have 
long been personally acquainted with a far greater variety of similar 
phenomena, now of frequent occurrence in the spiritualists' ranks 
in this country. Of these pernicious qualities, being more of a tem- 
porary disorder than an inherent condition, the Quakers as a body 
did not partake ; they were therefore left to carry out the spirit 
of their founder, and not to reenact those unfortunate eccentricities 
which proved contagious to a few of the more susceptible who were 
brought into personal contact with him. The persecutions which 
befell this sect in different countries was chiefly, if not wholly, in 
consequence of the disorderly conduct of a few of its more impres- 
sible members. The orthodoxy of their faith and the quietude of 
their manners, as an associate body, would be likely to secure them 
against any unwarrantable impertinence or savage interference 
from others. The spiritual condition of* Fox became a fixed prin- 
ciple with the Quakers; but greatly modified and controlled in its 
disorderly manifestations by those who were less mediumistic. 
They still wait for the moving of the Spirit, confident, if I mistake 
not, that the Holy Ghost in the soul is more than the letter of 
Scripture out of it. 

Jesus Christ.* 

During the reign of Augustus, in fulfillment of a pledge made 
by the Almighty to Abraham one hundred years subsequent to 
Nimrod's building Babylon, the shepherds of Judea beheld a star 
in the East tokening to them .the birth of the Redeemer of man- 
kind. Born of humble parentage, dressed in plebian garb, and 
cradled in a manger, there appeared, to the unbelieving mind, but 
little prospect of his ever becoming an important personage in 
Palestine, much less the founder of a new order of things through- 
out the world, and not only the revered but the adored of all 
Christian nations. That Divine but humble and obscure form 
became the avenue through which Heaven again flowed to earth — 
the means of connection between God and man, and by which all 
could become blessed in proportion to their fidelity to Him. 
* This name signifies a union of the Divine Celestial with the Divine Spiritual. 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. 113 

No where in the universe was there ever found a being so full 
of earnestness and mildness, grandeur and humility, hatred of sin 
and love of sinners, so deeply moved and inspired, so lofty in 
imagination and holy in thought, so symmetrical and harmonious, 
yet of such heavenly serenity and calmness ; so thoroughly con- 
trolled by a sole regard to the glory of God and the salvation of 
the world; so divine and yet so genuinely human ; so sublime and 
awful, yet so irresistibly attractive, — as the lowly-born babe of Beth- 
lehem at whose birth a star appeared significative that a new light 
had come into the ivorld. Here is the " holy of holies " of history, 
which infidelity itself, if it retains aught of decency and of the 
dignity of man, does not venture to violate. Here is the light of 
the world, which immediately attests its own presence and glory, 
and sends its rays through all ages and climes. Here are opened 
up the fresh fountains of life, in which the noblest of our race 
have washed and become clean, have renewed their youth and 
been inspired for every great and good work. Here is the poten- 
tial principle of all life, of all hope, of all happiness. Here is the 
Wonderful, the Counseller, the mighty God, the everlasting 
Father, the Prince of Peace ; at whose passion the world is con- 
vulsed and the sun is veiled in darkness. Even the natural 
elements had partaken of his divinity, and the struggle between 
good and evil in both mind and matter had now fairly commenced ; 
for he had connected them with a new condition of things, by 
becoming himself the God-man and the centre of the moral and 
physical universe. 

" This one perfect character," says Dr. Bushnell, " has come into 
our world and lived in it ; filling all the moulds of action, all the 
terms of duty and love, with his own divine manners, works and 
charities. All the conditions of our life are raised thus, by the 
meaning he has shown to be in them, and the grace he has put 
upon them. The world itself is changed, and is no more the same 
that it was ; it has never been the same since Jesus left it. The 
air is charged with heavenly odors, and a kind of celestial con- 
sciousness, a sense of other worlds, is wafted on us in its breath- 
Let the dark ages come, let society roll backward and churches 
perish in whole regions of the earth, let infidelity deny, and what 
is worse, let spurious piety dishonor the truth ; still there is some- 
thing here that was not, and a something that has immortality in 
it. Still our confidence remains unshaken, that Christ and his all- 
quickening life are in the world, as fixed elements, and will be to 



114: THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the end of time ; for Christianity is not so much the advent of a 
better doctrine, as of a perfect character ; and how can a perfect 
character, once entered into life and history, be separated and 
finally expelled ? It were easier to untwist the beams of light in 
the sky, separating and expunging one of the colors, than to get 
the character of Jesus, which is the real gospel, out of the world. 
Look ye hither, meantime, all ye blinded and fallen of mankind, 
a better nature is among yon, a pure heart, out of some pure world, 
is come into your prison, and walks it with you. Do you require 
of us to show who he is, definitely to expound his person ? We 
may not be able. Enough to know that he is not of us, — some 
strange being out of nature and above it, whose name is Wonderful. 
Enough that sin has never touched his hallowed nature, and that 
he is a friend. In him dawns a hope, — purity has not come into 
our world except to purify. Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh 
away the sins of the world ! Light breaks in, peace settles on the 
air; lo! the prison walls are giving way — rise, let us go."* 

Jo 7m Calvi n . 

Taking the life and precepts of Christ as the standard of a 
religious life, there is much reasonable doubt of Calvin's possessing 
a high order of piety. While, on the one hand, his history and 
writings assure us of his eminent learning and talent ; on the other, 
it equally forces upon us the conviction that he possessed an obsti- 
nate and turbulent disposition, asperity of manners, unrelenting aus- 
terity, and savage cruelty, wholly incompatible with the true spirit 
of the Christian Religion. Of this we find ample proof in the warmth 
and violence of his haughty temper, — his impatience of contradic- 
tion that arose from an over-jealous concern of his honor, and 
the selfish and indiscreet impetuosity of his ambition. The ban- 
ishment of the learned and refined Castalio, and the French monk 
Carmelite, who forsook the Catholic faith and embraced the 
Protestant ; but who could not brook Calvin's predestinarian doc- 
trine ; and the execution of the bold, independent, but deluded 
Michael Servetus, and the licentious and infidel Gruet, attaches to 
Calvin those peculiar traits of character which no christian whose 
heart had ever been melted by the Divine love, would ever court. 
Intellectually, Calvin was evidently a Christian ; but morally his 
passions or loves, were not brought into subordination to the Spirit 
of our Divine Master. In him Faith and Charity sustained but little 
^Nature and the supernatural, p. 331. 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. 115 

or no kindred relationship to each other.* The evils which he so 
strenuously fought against in others were yet unsubdued in himself. 
These he wedded to his devotions and ultimated them in direful 
persecutions, — mistaking the stimulus of his unregenerated self- 
hood for religious zeal. In this he was inferior to most of his 
enemies; but his revengeful and obstinate disposition, indomitable 
perseverance and the official position to which he had attained, gave 
a power to his resentment that made him their master. He was 
naturally a religious despot, and his piety acting upon loves unre- 
generated, onlv intensified this condition. 

To plead an indulgence for these palpable defects in his character 
is to exalt natural talent and literary attainments above the virtues 
of life. But the peculiarity of his temperament and the condition 
of the world at an age just emerging from the barbarity of the 
Popish church in which he was born, entitles him to a generous 
consideration. But had he possessed the spirit of Waldus or 
Luther he would not have needed the forbearance of a just criticism. 

The arrogant and selfish satisfaction, the predominance of Faith 
over Charity, of austerity over brotherly love, clearly shows to 
every observing mind, that the spirit of Calvin still lives in those 
who have adopted his sentiments. With the highest respect for 
their faith and an orderly observance of the outward forms of their 
church, it is but a just rebuke when we add that there is evidently, 
too often a deplorable deficiency in those finer Christian graces 
which we may reasonably suppose best fits a soul for Heaven. 
While it is the first prerogative of Charity to love the Lord with 
all the heart, and to correct our own evils by bringing all of our 
propensities into subordination to His requirements ; it is its 
second, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to seek every laud- 
able means to promote their temporal and spiritual interest. Faith 
based in such a life becomes the eyes by which we see the Lord. 
Deceive ourselves as we may, faith without such Christian graces 
is dead, being alone. 

J antes Avminius, 

Arminius was born in 1560, at Oudewater, in Holland, fifty-one 
years subsequent to the birth of John Calvin, in whose tenets he 
was educated : but subsequently renounced. In 1588 he became 
*Eaith has its birth from the intellect, Charity from the loves, or what is the 
same, the emotional nature. Therefore no man can have a Christian Charity only 
as his loves are redeemed from the self-hood, for the self-hood is controlled by 
Satan and not the Lord. And Faith, to become a saving principle, must be found- 
ed in Charity, and not a mere intellectual conviction. 



116 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

a preacher at Amsterdam, and, afterwards, was appointed professor 
of divinity at Leyden. Being engaged to refute a work against 
Beza's doctrine of predestination, he was converted by the writer's 
arguments, and commenced teaching the new doctrine. Naturally 
possessing a spirit of great integrity, candor, amiability, and of 
universal toleration, so much so that even his enemies were com- 
pelled to acknowledge these noble traits in his character, there was 
no native soil in his constitution for the exotic plant of predestina- 
rianism. Though his youthful mind had been made the nursery 
of a doctrine foreign to his natural proclivities, he could not supply 
it with the necessary elements to give it a healthy and fruitful 
maturity. Hence the first controversial breeze that swept across 
the field blasted it forever. But on the contrary, he eagerly drank 
in the principles of those whose religious system extends the love 
of the Supreme Being, and the merits of Jesus Christ, to all man- 
kind. And as upon all of those points of doctrine where the 
Scriptures are not sufficiently explicit to prevent all cavil, the 
christian draws his conclusions from the make-up of his own pecu- 
liar constitution, Arminius was ready to ignore any partiality in 
the Divine being, and to assure his pupils and hearers that ample 
provisions were laid up in the store-house of God's mercy for all 
mankind, and that the invitation had gone forth from the u Spirit 
and the bride, saying, come. And let him that heareth say come. 
And let him that is athirst, come : And whosoever will, let hi in 
take the water of life freely."* Or, to use the Arminian's own 
form of expression, " That Jesus Christ, by his death and sufferings, 
made an atonement for the sins of all mankind in general, and 
of every individual in particular ; that, however, none but those 
who believe in Him can be partakers of their Divine benefit." 

These sentiments of "free grace" and universal toleration met 
with severe opposition from the Calvinist. Strange as it now may 
appear they were looked upon as a covert attempt to destroy all 
religion, by artfully insinuating the poison of Socinianism and 
Pelagianism into unwary and uninstructed minds. For this reason 
the famous synod of Dort was convoked in the year 1618, by the 
counsel and influence of prince Maurice. Eminent divines from 
both parties here met ; but the Arminians were already laid under 
the charge of heresy, from which there appeared to be no way of 
extricating themselves. The Calvinists were the predominant 
party, and arrogantly assumed that their doctrines were the standard 

* Rev. 22: 17. 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. 117 

of right, and the most violent opposers of the Arminians and 
warmest patrons and abettors of the Calvinists were appointed as 
their judges. The Arminians first desired to show that the doc- 
trine of the Calvinists was not a proper standard of truth. This 
w T as denied them, and as they persisted in questioning the standard 
by which they were to be judged, they were excluded from the 
assembly, and returned home complaining bitterly of the rigor and 
partiality with which they had been treated. Their cause was 
nevertheless tried in their absence ; they were pronounced guilty 
of pestilential errors and condemned as the corrupters of the true 
religion, by which was meant immutable decrees and predestina- 
rianism. In consequence of this decree, they were excommuni- 
cated, and considered as enemies of their country and its established 
religion, and were deprived of all their posts and employments, 
whether ecclesiastical or civil, their religious assemblies suppressed 
and their ministers silenced. To such injustice they refused obe- 
dience and thus drew upon themselves the wrath of their enemies 
and were punished by fines, imprisonment, exile and other marks 
of ignominy. 

Mosheim very justly remarks that " It is plain that the ruin of 
their community was a point not only premeditated, but determined 
even before the meeting of the national synod ; and that this synod 
was not so much assembled to examine the doctrines of the Armin- 
ians, in order to see whether it was worthy of toleration and 
indulgence, as to publish and execute, with a certain solemnity, 
with an air of justice, and with the suffrage and consent of foreign 
divines, whose authority was respectable, a sentence already drawn 
up and agreed upon by those who had the principal direction of 
these affairs." * * * The solemn promise made to the Armin- 
ians, when they were summoned before the synod, that * they 
should be allowed the freedom of explaining and defending their 
opinions, as far as they thought proper or necessary to their justi- 
fication,' was manifestly violated."* 

These remarks are here introduced, in order to bring out more 
fully the lights and shades which make up the characters of the 
principal actors, in the founding of the two primary schools of the 
Protestant Religion. For it is a maxim laid down in this essay, 
that under whatever influence an institution is established, that 
influence becomes as permanent as the institution itself. There- 
fore, what is said of their founders, is also said of their disciples, 
*Ecc. History, vol. 4, p. 137. 



i 



118 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

modified, however, by experience and new conditions that are from 
time to time brought to bear upon them. The Calvinist, like Cain, 
in a preeminent degree represent the principles of Faith ; and 
Arminians, like Abel, the principles of Charity ; and they igno- 
rantly supposed that they were really detrimental to the interest of 
each other ; whereas it is clearly evident that it requires the united 
force of the two principles to make up the true Christian. By this 
it is not intended to say, that there are not noble and true Christian 
persons in the ranks of both classes ; but it will not be denied that 
they are such only in the degree as they unite faith in doctrine and 
charity in life. 

Numerous and popular as the Arminians have become, they have 
ever been and will forever remain the negative party ; and this for 
the reason that they sustain the emotional or wifely relation to the 
Protestant church ; while the Calvinists are of a more cool, delib- 
erate, austere, commanding and comparatively insensitive people, 
characteristic of the husband. It is a shame for them to keep 
up a perpetual domestic discord or to live divorced from each other. 
On the one hand, the Calvinists greatly need in their associations the 
warmth and inspiring ardor of the Arminians ; on the other, the 
Arminians no less need the positive, cool and intellectual delibera- 
tion of the Calvinist. For example, let a Methodist and a Baptist 
or Congregational society meet at the same altar, on a perfect 
Christian basis, with a determination to unite in brotherly and 
sisterly love the positive and negative Christian forces, and thev 
would become a focal point through which the Divine sphere would 
descend in such a manner as to set at defiance all earthly opposition. 
The New York Fulton street union prayer meeting affords a strik- 
ing illustration of this principle. For years it stood as a star in the 
Christian firmament which radiated its influence throughout the 
nation ; and hundreds of sinners who never attended one of those 
meetings have been converted to God through the instrumentalitv 
of the prayers offered up in their behalf in the Old South Church. 
All of the sects in that great Babylon city might have daily met in 
their denominational churches, and prayed from morning till night, 
and they would never have accomplished one-tenth part of what 
was done in those union meetings. 

The greatest misfortune that has befallen the Christian world is 
the separation of the positive and negative spiritual forces into 
ecclesiastical sects. A stern, resolute and uncompromising Peter, 
who was ever ready to smite with the sword the servants of the 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. 119 

high priest, or to command fire from heaven upon the enemies of 
his Master ; and a mild, confiding, and loving John, who would 
quietly repose upon the bosom of his Lord, were chosen by the 
Great Teacher himself as being indispensable correlatives for the 
establishment of those coopposite conditions through which the 
Holy Ghost, like parted flames of fire, could descend in a mighty 
rushing current upon the harmonious band of believers. Were 
those conditions observed which our Lord showed by his example 
to be requisite, penticostal days would cease to be a miracle, or to 
be looked back to as an event that was, but never to be repeated. 
Had Peter, James and John, before whom the Lord was trans- 
figured, and who were the representatives of the three cardinal 
principles of the church, viz., Faith, Charity and Works, divided 
themselves into separate sects, one declaring faith to be the main 
essential to salvation, another, charity, and the third, good works, 
they would never beheld the Lord in his glorified condition, neither 
could the Holy Ghost have found an avenue of access to the earth. 
Satan evidently well understood this principle, and to effectually 
maintain his own kingdom, he has operated upon the selfishness of 
mankind so as to divide them into sects and parties, and at the 
same time, has thrown in such insulators as has kept them aloof 
from each other. He is aware that so long as he can keep the 
Peters', James', and Johns', disconnected, so that they will operate 
only in a separate capacity, with no bond of sympathy or union 
between them, he effectually scatters and wastes the spiritual force 
of each. As a steamship with one wheel paddling backwards 
and the other forwards, perpetually whirls round and round -with- 
out making any headway towards its desired haven ; so the church, 
freighted with human souls, with the positive and negative forces^ 
one working opposite to the other, has made no headway, only as 
she has been irresistibly borne on by the natural current of events, 
scarcely having left the shores of Egypt she has whirled until her 
passengers have become bewildered, some distrusting her chart 
and compass, others doubting the skill of her Captain, and still 
others throwing themselves into the deep, trusting to the tempestu- 
ous waves of infidelity, have sank to rise no more forever. In all 
human associations, the rule is as conspicuous as the sun at noon- 
day, that Satan scatters, weakens, and destroys ; the Lord gathers, 
strengthens, and saves. Therefore, let it be remembered that 
every separating influence, other than from sin, is of the Devil, 
and every binding influence in righteousness, is of the Lord. 



120 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

These remarks, though foreign to the direct thread of the pre- 
sent essay, are here introduced in order to more fully impress upon 
the mind of the reader, the mischievous consequences of building 
up a partition wall out of the peculiar tenets of the founders of the 
different sects. Space will not permit, neither is it essential, to 
speak of each sub-division which have assumed a denominational 
character, but which have grown out of the two great leading 
doctrines of Calvinism and Arminianism. Suffice it to say that 
when we intimately learn the peculiarities of their founders, we 
find them reenacted, to a greater or less extent, in all of their 
followers. To such a degree is this the case, that it requires no 
very critical observation to detect them wherever they happen to 
stray into another denomination. 

The Puritans. 

The Pilgrims, after having met with severe persecutions in their 
native country, resolved on settling in the then newly discovered 
country of America. A company, under the charter of king James, 
had already been formed in Virginia. To this colony the Pilgrims 
intended to emigrate ; but owing to their want of skill in naviga- 
tion, or the tempestuousness of the season in which they crossed the 
Atlantic, they arrived at Cape Cod, nearly two degrees north of 
the place they had aimed at. The lateness of the season, the 
fatigues of the voyage, and the perils of coasting along a shore 
which had been but imperfectly explored, prevented them from 
putting to sea again, and they sought a spot for their settlement in 
that locality. But as they were then without the limits of the Vir- 
ginia Company, and the Crown had refused to grant them a charter, 
Jhey deemed it necessary, before leaving the vessel, to sign an agree- 
ment, promising to submit to whatever u just and equitable laws 
and ordinances might be thought convenient for the general good." 
Under this judicious regulation, on the 22d of December, 1620, 
this little colony, consisting of one hundred and one souls, landed 
from the May Flower then lying in the harbor in the south-western 
part of Massachusetts Bay, and named their settlement Plymouth, 
after the name of the place from which they had sailed. 

One of their associates, who had been left behind in England, 
obtained for them a grant of land from the Company which was 
now incorporated, under a new charter, as " The Council estab- 
lished at Plymouth in the County of Devon, England, for the 
Planting, Ruling, Ordering and Governing New England in 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. 121 

America." This grant authorized the colonists to choose a Gov- 
ernor, Council, and General Court, for the enactment and execution 
of laws. Strictly speaking, however, this company had no right 
to give them any more than the property of the soil. To render 
legal their political organization, a charter from the Crown was 
necessary, but this they never obtained. So that in all of their polit- 
ical movements, growing out of the necessity of their condition, 
they acted as a free and independent people. Their remoteness 
and insignificance as a political body prevented the authorities at 
home from questioning their right. The agreement which they 
had signed on board of the May Flower was the basis of their legis- 
lation ; and, for some time, all of the settlers came together in a 
general assembly, to enact laws necessary to their social regulation. 

For ten years this little Puritan Colony remained separate and 
distinct from all the rest of the world, — only such members were 
added as were of the same principles with themselves ; so that at 
the end of this period they numbered only three hundred souls. 
They held no connection with any governmental or religious incor- 
poration. After the death of their beloved pastor, Rev. John 
Robinson, who came over withtnem in the May Flower, the Church 
of England sent them the Rev. Mr. Lyford, but they refused to 
receive him, and exercised their right to expel him and two of their 
numbers who adhered to him. In this way they effectually plant- 
ed the spirit of Liberty on the American soil, and though briers 
and noxious weeds sprang up all around, and retarded the perfec- 
tion of its growth, it has maintained its existence. 

Thus, in its origin, this colony was the purest democracy on earth ; 
and ivholly disconnected from all aristocratic powers. Here was 
first planted the germ of American Republicanism, which soon grew 
into a national character. While these had neither royal sanction 
nor protection, the Virginia Colony was incorporated and sustained 
by the Crown. 

The chief primary distinction between the spirit of the North 
and that of the South, evidently took its rise in the cause here 
designated. The two sections started and grew up together ; but 
from two distinct and antagonistic principles; one from the purest 
democracy, the other from base oligarchy, founded upon the insti- 
tution of slavery. They were providentially permitted to mature 
upon the same soil and under the same flag ; but the spirit by 
which each was actuated was in the very nature of things, hostile 
to that of the other. On the one hand slavery sought to extend 



i 



122 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

itself regardless of the rights of freedom ; on the other, freedom 
sought to curtail the unjust extension of slavery. It was impos- 
sible for them to entertain any sympathy for each other ; and evil 
ever being the aggressive party, slavery struck the first blow at 
the government, which was guilty of trying to hold two irreconcil- 
able principles in intimate relations with each other. This blow 
was resisted by a moral force which slavery could not withstand, 
and so it was driven to the wall ; but not until the two contending 
forces had slain more than a million of human victims. 

This peculiar southern institution, having been originally char- 
tered by the crown as the representative of the English people, 
the connection between that government and this institution had 
never been severed ; hence there was an unbroken thread of sym- 
pathy still existing between them. It avails nothing, that England 
had emancipated her own slaves ; for any connection once taken 
between parties on the side of evil can never be severed only by 
interposing a moral barrier between them. This, England had 
never done, nor had the South ever aspired to conditions higher 
than that in which this connection was taken ; so that they were 
in as full a relationship on the slfle of evil as they were the day 
the charter was granted. It was through this relationship that 
the South drew sympathy from their mother country ; but it being 
a sympathy founded only in evil it could really avail nothing 
against the right. Overlooking the fact of this peculiar relation, 
neither understood the cause of this preference ; but which is 
readily accounted for upon the principles here under consideration. 
Many have supposed that England was envious of American pros- 
perity, and hence desired that domestic discord should destroy 
their hated rival. In this opinion I cannot concur, for the sympa- 
thy was evidently emotional rather than rational ; an emotion which 
sprang from a connection which still existed between the English 
and the South, but which did not exist between them and the 
North. 

John Brown and the War of 1861-5* 

Early in the year of 1859, Capt. John Brown, a man of strong 
philanthropic feelings and undaunted courage, made an attempt to 
liberate a body of slaves at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Proving 
unsuccessful, he was arrested by a people who had become brutal- 
ized by their institutions, and after a formal trial was condemned 
for an alledged attempt to excite a servile insurrection, and was 






THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. 123 

executed on the second day of December of the same year, leaving 
behind as a legacy to the world another glowing example of the 
extreme folly of putting men to death for acts of which heaven 
approves. Martyrs' blood never quenches the flames of justice, but 
makes fruitful their field of labor. 

The spirit by which he was moved was more than his acts ; he 
was the medium of a force which was more powerful than the man, 
more powerful than unholy institutions. They killed the man, but 
not the spirit b} r which he was actuated. By this simple move- 
ment he transplanted from the May Flower, which bore his parental 
ancestor from the oppression of his mother country, a spirit into the 
slave states, and so effectually nourished it with his blood that no 
human skill could eradicate it, nor human prudence stay its influ- 
ence. The rapidity with which it fomented the whole nation, clearly 
showed that it was the leaven of righteousness sent of God into the 
national heart to purify it of its evils. In little more than two years 
subsequent to the death of Mr. Brown a prominent Southern paper 
says : u Let the war result as it may, African slavery in Virginia 
has already been swept from her territory. If the war should 
continue a twelve-month longer there will be scarcely a slave in 
the state." Brown carried into the South the principle of contest 
between democracy and oligarchy, and thoroughly connected the 
whole nation with the same spirit. The South was aroused to a 
desperate action ; the North to a determinate resistance. Dark as 
the prospect then appeared it was evidently God's appointed means 
of purging this terrible evil from the nation. This noble hero was 
not wholly unconscious of the use that w r as providentially being- 
made of him. With a prophetic eye he saw that the contest was 
not to end with his death, but that his blood would ultimately 
become the ransom of the slave, and that he and his associated 
victims were but the beginning of that struggle upon which our 
country w T as about to enter. With such an object in view he says : 
" I am worth more to die than any other use that can be made of 
me." Let it therefore be remembered, that John Brown was the 
medium through whom the emancipating spirit descended from 
Heaven to the American people. 

Ju dietary Proceedings. 

Here, as in every other department of nature, we find the same 
law of connection in active operation. Litigations are well calcu- 
lated to excite to the greatest intensity of action all of the selfish 



124 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

and baser passions of man. Usually neither party are actuated by 
any higher motive than the love of gain or revenge. To this 
general rule there are honorable exceptions ; but the success of the 
right chiefly depends upon the moral condition of the magistrate. 
For, disguise the fact as we may, mankind are more influenced by 
their impulses than by their judgments ; and moreover, the judg- 
ment itself is always more or less warped by the impulses ; so that 
we too often fail to discover the exact boundary between right and 
wrong, even when we would. Both philosophy and observation 
teach us that the litigant who has the strongest connection with 
the world and its disorders, and the least with the divine, is usually 
the most successful party before the majority of magistrates, 
especially in our larger cities ; for the influence under which he 
moves, and that under which the court acts, are too often of the 
same detestable character, and cooperate with each other. Both 
may be wholly unconscious of their connection with evil, and fancy 
that they are protecting the right, when in reality they are only the 
agents of an invisible force for the perpetration of an outrage upon 
every principle of equity. Men are not proper judges of their 
own acts until they can view them from a stand-point of moral rec- 
titude ; and this they cannot do until they are delivered from evil. 
For in the degree as they are actuated by deranged impulses, the 
moral perceptions will be governed by them, so that the judgment 
becomes blinded in the ratio as the impulses become perverted. 
The principles of equity can find access into society only through 
such mediums as are themselves in moral order. A magistrate who 
holds a divine connection through an orderly and religious life, 
will be sure to become so quickened in his moral perceptions that 
it will become quite impossible to inveigle him into an unjust deci- 
sion. However strong the circumstances may seem to favor the 
wrong, or however powerful the argument of the counsellor for his 
litigious client ; the moral magistrate intuitively perceives its base- 
ness and interially repels every attempt to force an unjust decision 
from him. He is connected with a moral strata of spiritual forces 
which is more powerful than all external influences, and which 
enables him to rise above every intrigue and pronounce a just decis- 
ion in the case. Solomon found no difficulty in ascertaining the 
true mother Gf the living child, though he had no external evidence 
other than the conflicting testimony of the two contending women. 
The forces with which he was connected at once suggested to his 
mind a successful method of ascertaining the truth of the case. No 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. 125 

falsehood could defeat the ends of justice hy making a divine man 
subserve hellish ends. And I have no doubt that if any number of 
witnesses had sworn that the child belonged to the false claimant, 
he would in some way have detected the swindle. 

There is, nor can be, no reliance placed upon the justice of any 
jurisprudential proceedings without moral magistrates. Intellect 
and forensic skill are not enough to secure them against the impo- 
sitions of the litigating parties, and they are as liable to render 
unjust as just decisions. Evils, like the individual, have a spiritual 
as well as an ultimate existence, and the magistrate who is himself 
morally corrupt, is brought into an immediate relation with them 
through his connection with the litigants, and becomes blinded 
by their action upon him in consequence of their flowing into him, 
attracted by his own corresponding evils. If one of the litigants 
is actuated by the sentiment of justice, the unjust judge, having no 
corresponding condition within himself, fails to see the right, or to 
enter into relation with the just party ; but his condition connects 
him with the evil, and he unconsciously sees the case through his 
own perverted feelings, which discolors his vision, and so he is led 
to use the authority of his position to sustain the wrong. 

I have learned from abundant experience, that justice depends 
far more upon the integrity of the magistrate, than any amount of 
evidence which may be brought to bear upon the case. I have 
known the Court to set aside the testimony of eight or ten unim- 
peached witnesses, even where there was not one to swear against 
them, simply from the fact that the judge was a high-toned, religious 
man, and intuitively saw that every one of those witnesses had 
been bribed to swear to a falsehood. On the other hand, I 
have known a judge who was living a life of debauchery, to be 
perfectly callous to truth ; but who would eagerly drink in any 
falsehood, however apparent, and pronounce a decision accord- 
ingly. It has grown into a maxim, that " litigations are a lottery," 
and they are so only from the fact that our judges are appointed 
without any reference to their moral fitness for the office. 

In every other department of life it is well understood that in 
order to render one a competent judge in any matter, it is first 
necessary that he should have some special adaptation which 
qualifies him to express an opinion. No one, for example, would 
call upon a clown to decide upon the merits of a drama, or a miser 
to give a dissertation upon philanthropy, or a blind man to discrim- 
inate in colors ; for the conditions of such persons wholly disqualify 



126 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

them for such an undertaking. Still more incompetent is the man 
of morally unsound principles to decide in matters of equity. 
Through the law of affinity, the evils of his own nature like 
absorbent ducts, take up the evils of those by whom he is sur- 
rounded, and especially those to whom he becomes a passive listener, 
and he reflects back upon the contending parties the perverseness 
of his own condition, intensified by theirs. If these views are 
well founded, it will be seen that just decisions are the result of an 
enlightened intellect, combined with a pure conscience. But con- 
science is a divine principle, and is engrafted into the human 
constitution, only by means of love to the Lord and charity to the 
neighbor, — that charity which would enforce upon each, so far as 
possible, the necessity of maintaining the right ; such as are not 
principled in these possess no real conscience, hence are totally 
disqualified for any accurate discrimination in matters of equity. 

The principles here set forth will afford an explanation of the 
extreme uncertainty attending all litigations, and account for the 
enormous outrages against justice which so frequently disgrace the 
bench. In the present corrupt state of society it can scarcely be 
said that our jurisprudential regulations afford any greater certainty 
of obtaining justice, than a mere game of chance or a fair-fought 
duel. In the decline of the Roman Empire, which was brought 
about by the effeminacy, debauchery, and wickedness of her 
nobles, the unreasonable and barbarous decisions of causes by duel 
grew out of the Feudal System, and became at one period so 
prevalent that all possible disputes, even actions for debt, were 
settled in open court by single combat, — physical strength being 
the sole arbiter between them. Debasing and cruel as this system 
w T as, it certainly had the merit of not only speedily terminating 
the case, but of avoiding enormous bills of expense. 

I see no way of preventing the evil under which we are now 
suffering, until the public are enlightened upon the principles of 
equity, and awakened to the importance of appointing such magis- 
trates as are morally competent to fill the positions assigned them. 
Men of integrity should be called upon to take the place of the present 
class of selfish and unprincipled demagogues. But just here lies 
the difficulty ; so large a share of the public is involved in the same 
moral delinquencies, that there is not enough left to bring into 
prominent action the highest moral element of our country. The 
popular suffrage is bestowed upon a class of men who seek official 
positions as the most effectual means of gratifying their own selfish 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. 127 

ends rather than promoting the public interest.* All thus seem 
to be alike involved in the meshes with which Satan has entangled 
mankind. But few know the way and means by which the right 
could be maintained ; and those who do, are not in a condition to 
make their wisdom available ; and so Satan manages the affairs of 
this world mostly in his own way, — a way which is extremely dis- 
astrous to all concerned. No one who is acquainted with the 
political and judiciary affairs of this country will accuse me of stat- 
ing what facts will not sustain, when I say that our legislative, 
executive, and judicial departments, contain many of the lowest, the 
most detestable, dishonest and abandoned villains that have ever 
disgraced our nation. True, they may not be openly engaged in 
those smaller vices for which mankind have a sort of insignificant 
contempt ; but they are not the less guilty of such wickedness as 
debauches the soul and damns society, — sins which, by their fre- 
quency in high places, men cease to condemn, if they do not learn 
to respect, and which thus sap the foundation of all morality and 
turn the streams of justice from their proper channels. Action and 
reaction are equal. Society sustains villains in official positions, and 
official villains curse society. The Cincinnatuses, Solons, and Julians, 
are in the shops and fields ; while the Alaxries, Commodiuses, and 
Neros, stand with their hands in the treasury box or sit upon judicial 
benches. Disguise the fact as we may, we are living in an age 
when " judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth 
afar off: for truth is fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter. 
Yea, truth faileth ; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself 
a prey ; and the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was 
no judgement."* It is to be hoped that we near the dawn of a 
better era. 

These examples are sufficient to show the nature and importance 
of the laws of connection here under consideration, laws which are 
not understood, but which underlie the whole moral order of society. 
We do not gather grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles ; neither can 
we derive divine qualities from those who are the conjunctive me- 
diums of evil. While all persons, as to their bodies, live in the natural 
world, they at the same time, as to their spirits, live in the spiritual 
world. Heaven and hell meet in the human constitution, and 
either one or the other find ingress into society through every 
individual. On the one hand, the pure in heart are the avenues 
for those principles which maintain the moral order of society ; on 

*Isaiah 59 : 14, 15. 



128 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the other, the impure are the sewers through which flows every 
corrupting and disintegrating influence. The different conditions 
and qualities of mankind are but the legitimate results of individual 
connection with different moral stratas in the spiritual world ; but 
which stratas correspond to their own condition, and change with 
every changing condition of the individual. Holy influences recede 
or draw near, according to our own recession from, or turning to 
the Lord. They are governed by a uniform law. As we leave . 
Jesus they must leave us ; and Jesus is left when mentally we 
reject His claims to be the sovereign ruler of the soul, when mor- 
ally we disobey His precepts. And as holy influences leave us, the 
opposite take their place. 

Man being thus immediately connected with the spiritual world, 
he has been provided with a magnetic principle, subject to the action 
of his will, and which was designed to prevent any unlawful inte- 
rior suggestions from finding an ultimate expression, so as to prevent 
the hells from finding access through him. Man is not responsible 
for his evil thoughts, unless he permits them to flow into his loves 
by desiring to ultimate them in acts. Such a desire incorporates 
the evil into his own constitution, for which he is held responsible 
by the laws of both God and man. But so long as he resists it 
from a sense of obedience to the divine precepts, he deprives all evil 
spirits of the opportunity of operating through him to the injury of 
others, and finding that they cannot control his actions, they soon 
flee from him and angels minister unto him. 

Disorderly or infernal influences, can find access into man only 
through the emotions, there being no other plane for their ingress. 
These influences are not always sufficiently powerful to control the 
magnetic forces, and to thus subordinate the loves, and through them, 
the life to their use. But by entering into relation with those 
whose magnetic forces have been already subdued to evil, he may 
readily take on such psychological conditions as will completely 
subordinate his own forces so as to cause him to will and do what 
before he only thought, but restrained. In the one case he is a 
bulwark against the hells ; in the other he is an open sluice-way 
for their ingress into society. 

Mesmerism is really nothing more than the influx of the posi- 
tive forces of the operator into the receptive subject. These forces 
acting upon the negative or subordinate will, weaken or destroy 
the odylic sphere, which intercepts between the outer and the inner 
consciousness, and which was designed to protect the sovereignty 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. 129 

of the individual in his own realm. No sooner does he allow him- 
self to become subject to the will of another, instead of acting 
from his own rationality, than he yields the negative plane of his 
nature to objective instead of subjective forces, and thus, like a 
city which has allowed itself to be deprived of every munition of 
defence, he lays himself open to the intrusion of every foreign foe, 
whether men or devils. The mesmerist communicates to the per- 
son whom he operates upon, the things of his own spirit, his bodily 
health or disease, his vital fluids and forces, streaming with the 
fire of his passions, potent with hunger or the satisfaction of his 
appetites. The odylic currents, darting through the ruling eye, 
the operative hand, convey the heaven or the hell within the human 
breast. Moral qualities and mental states are freely transmitted 
through the mesmeric fluids. The conscientious man may impart 
such moral forces as will aid the weak to resist the wiles of the 
Adversary and to become strong in God. But the evil man, out 
of the evil treasure of his heart, will saturate his magnetism with 
lust, with hatred, with covetousness, with hostility to the life- 
giving doctrines of the Word. The unsuspecting subject will then 
receive, unless guarded, a potion drugged with the madness of the 
lowej* world. The mesmerist, whether male or female, gradually 
obtains that immense power with their patients which results from 
the inter-diffusion of the. one life, the forces of one animal soul, 
throughout the other. The human body was made to be the 
channel for Divine influences ; but, alas, it far more frequently 
becomes the highway of evil. Our Lord was incarnated in the 
natural form, that through it He might communicate a vivifying 
virtue to the human race. He came " that we mio-ht have life, 
and have it more adundantly ;" and there is no other means by 
which that Divine life can become conjoined to man. 

Hence, animal magnetism, whenever practiced without any refer- 
ence to ends of orderly use, becomes the means of bursting the 
barriers which protect the individual from the disorderly influences 
of others, and, at the same time, prevents lost spirits from access 
to the mental tabernacle. Usually it has proved to be the means 
of connecting the evils rather than the virtues of mankind, which 
it has immensely augmented through their reciprocal action upon 
each other. Physical contact, without a determinate will-force 
in the direction of resistance of evil, often proves fatal to the 
morals of the individual. A state of passivity in promiscuous asso- 
ciations is one of terrible danger, especially to every susceptible 



130 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

person. The modern Spiritual phenomenon, as the culmination of 
all human depravity, is a striking illustration of this law. Media 
are usually first developed as such, by physical contact with others 
more depraved than themselves. This mixing of disordered forces, 
and especially through sexual commerce, establishes a condition 
which not only completely subverts the morals and bewilders the 
judgment, but lays the individual open to the influx of every 
demoniacal influence. Whatever becomes the subjective condition, 
attracts to itself corresponding objective influences ; whence the 
disorderly magnetic forces become the basis of spiritual infestation 
and obsessions. These considerations will account for the fact 
that in the degree as wickedness has culminated in any given age 
of the world, Spiritual media have multiplied. They are evi- 
dently the most susceptible members of society, and as such, are 
actually the gauges of its moral conditions, which, like the scum 
of cess-pools, rises to the surface, indicating the corruptness of 
the mass. 

61 Herein is made apparent the sinfulness of attempting to induce 
magnetic sleep as an abnormal condition. It is an inversion, 
against the order of the Heavens, and the subject Spirit is drawn 
by that inversion to the hells, unless restraints are interposed. It 
is in order, however, in the Lord's New Church on earth, to 
breathe upon diseased human bodies the restorative influence, but 
never in order to induce upon any human Spirit artificial clair- 
voyance, for the purpose of explorations in the interior of things. 
He who does this, even ignorantly, puts in peril his brother's or 
his sister's soul. Magnetization to induce sleep as a physical reme- 
dial agent, when the magnetizer is an unregenerate man, produces 
an interior obsession, when carried to any length or attended with 
success. A partial vigor may indeed be imparted to the body, but 
soul-conditions are disarranged and the internal harmony destroyed. 
It is not in order to yield the body to a magnetizer for the purpose 
of the development of spiritual sight or for the attainment of con- 
ditions of meduimship, because whenever a man, without interior 
promptings from the Lord Himself, puts forth an influence which 
forces open the angel-guarded door of communication between the 
spiritual possessions of the mind and the lower regions of the 
physical structure, it corresponds, though often it is practiced with- 
out any evil design whatever, and indeed unwittingly, to the 
puncturing of the membraneous substance which envelopes the 
foetus of the unborn infant in its mother's womb."* 
* Rev. T. L. Harris' Arcana Celestia. 



THE LAWS OF CONNECTION. 131 

Again ; diseases, or the conditions ont of which they take their 
rise, are also propagated from one person to another. Most of the 
physical sufferings of life are induced by such associations as are 
adapted to the development of certain forms of malady. I have 
learned from critical observation and much painful experience, that 
there are many persons with whom I cannot continue to associate 
without loss of health, and probably, ultimately of life. I have 
met with persons with whom five minutes of conversation would 
produce the most terrible paroxysms of vomiting I ever expe- 
rienced. I repeated the experiment with them until I became 
satisfied of the cause, and dared not repeat it again. Others pro- 
duce different forms of diseased action, and still others exert a 
salutary effect ; I have therefore been compelled to confine myself 
to such associations as experience has taught me are adapted to the 
peculiarities of my constitution. Thousands are suffering a daily 
martyrdom and sinking into premature graves, for the want of an 
understanding of the law here under consideration. As we cannot 
mix two fluids without producing a new compound, so likewise two 
human spheres cannot mingle without effecting new conditions. 
The sphere of one may be overpowered or expelled by that of 
another, so that the injury done by the first may be repaired by the 
second, or vice versa. Probably there is no subject more important 
to be understood than this sort of social commerce ; none freighted 
with greater consequences to mankind. In every community there 
is a class of vampires or parasites who continually suck up the 
vital forces of those with whom they associate, and their victims 
drag out a feeble and wretched existence without ever suspecting 
the cause of their misfortunes. Previously to becoming acquainted 
with this law I was thrice brought to the verge of the grave by 
invalids who recovered their health at the expense of mine. 

Mental and moral disorders are propagated in the same way. 
Let any evil spring up in society, though from the pit itself, and 
be promulgated by a few corrupt persons, and that evil will 
rapidly flow from one to another, and infect thousands whom we 
might reasonably have supposed would have remained uncontami- 
nated by it. The words of such speakers do not so much convince 
the judgment, but the influence which accompanies the words finds 
a lodgment in the individual addressed, and controls the feelings, 
and the feelings ultimately the judgment ; for all disorderly influx 
is through the impulses, not the rationality. The rationality may 
be used to hold the individual in subordination or passive submis- 



132 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

sion, until the impulses become infected with a virus which shall 
destroy the moral perception, and through it the rationality. 
Hence, even truths may be inculcated by a demonized person to 
the great injury of his listener. The spirit is far more powerful 
than the words ; and the devil fully understands the fact, that if he 
can hold the attention, he can magnetize his victim ; and in doing 
this he lays the foundation for future operations. 

The clergyman w ho fills his office from a sense of religious duty, 
though his words mav be few and feeble, thev are laden with a 
Divine potency which is more powerful than the most lofty elo- 
quence — more convincing than the most logical argument. Every 
word carries with it the spirit of his Divine Master, and all who 
are in sympathy with that spirit, feel the eloquence of Divine forces 
and perceive the arguments of Divine principles. They absorb 
from him the sphere by which he is sustained, while he at the same 
time, is supplied from an inexhaustible fountain, so that he is not 
impoverished by imparting. While on the other hand, the speaker 
who renounces God, His Word, chastity, and all that makes up 
the moral order of society, whatever may be his logic or mode of 
expression, he stands as the connecting medium between his pas- 
sive listeners and the potent but corrupting forces of the damned. 
Every word comes forth laden with the awful virus which infects 
the soul with every moral disorder, and which soon manifests 
itself in the subversion of every Divine principle. One such aban- 
doned speaker, of which we now most unfortunately have many, 
w T ill magnetize thousands into their own perverted and depraved 
conditions. It is not strange, therefore, that no small portion of 
the public have so rapidly sunk into the most horrid state of cor- 
ruption. Compare the morals of to-day with those of even twenty 
years ago, and it will readily be seen that there is some vulture 
at work which is eating out the virtue of society. 



CHAPTER IV. 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 



Sin is usually defined to be the voluntary departure of a moral 
agent from a known rule of rectitude or duty prescribed by God, 
or any voluntary transgression of a Divine law. But the qualifi- 
cation here made of known duty does not appear to be necessary, 
abstractly to a full and proper definition of the term ; for though 
an understanding of the moral consequences may add much to the 
turpitude of the offence, it cannot be said that ignorance exculpates 
the offender. For if such were the case, St. Paul might better 
have said, that where there is no knowledge, instead of " where 
there is no law, there is no transgression." 

Laws, in a general sense, are rules of action or conduct, which 
have their rise in the constitution and relation of things ; and hold 
an immediate and definite relation to their object ; so that they 
cannot be infringed with impunity. 

This definition, I apprehend, will cover the whole ground of 
Divine jurisprudence, both in animate and inanimate creation. 
But sin can be attributed only to beings of moral accountability, 
and therefore is a violation of a moral law ; and may be of either 
a positive or negative character, for it comprehends not actions 
only, but a neglect of known duty. But the effects of sin extend 
far beyond the plane of moral accountability insomuch that the 
whole creation groans and travails in pain together from its 
consequences. 

Briefly, I shall define sin to be a violation of any Divine precept, 
and an injustice to man. Now, these run in such parallel lines, 
that there is no diverging point between them : and it is impossible 
to be guilty of one, without at the same time being guilty of the 
other. If it be said that a man may think a blasphemous thought, 
to which he gives no verbal expression, without injury to the rest 

18 



134 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

of mankind, I reply that such an hypothesis can arise only from the 
want of a proper understanding of the power of mind over the 
mental and physical creation. For whatever conceptions take 
place in thought, will germinate and finally ultimate themselves, 
sooner or later, by birth, either through that individual or some 
other, into actual individual entities. Somewhere, and at some 
time, there must have been a primordial sin ; and in the very 
nature of things that sin must have been in thought against God; 
and all the evils that now exist are the legitimate offsprings, 
through successive generations of the first sinful impulse. Sin is 
as generative sui generis (of its kind) as any other principle in 
nature ; but is propagated alone upon the plane of mind, ultimat- 
ing itself upon the plane of matter. 

On the other hand, it will not be denied that an injury done to 
a fellow-being is an insult to the Creator ; for He has not only 
prohibited this by special commandments, but has also enjoined 
upon us that love for each other, which precludes the conception 
of any evil intention ; and in the niost emphatic manner assures 
us that whatever good or ill we have done to the least of His 
children, we have equally done to Him. Wherefore our Lord 
condenses the ten commandments into two, viz.: a love to Him 
with all the heart ; and our neighbor as ourselves, — and that one 
is like the other. 

It will be remembered that the ten commandments were written 
upon two tables of stone, — the first setting forth men's duties and 
relations to God ; and the second their duties and relations to each 
other. Now there must have been some important reason why 
two tables were provided instead of one ; for it would have been 
just as easy to have inscribed them all on one table as two, if there 
had not been a special reason why two should be preferred. The 
law is represented as a covenant between God and His people. 
A covenant is a consociation between the parties, so that each has 
reciprocal duties to perform ; and by this is maintained a conjunc- 
tion between them. For this reason there were two tables, one 
for God and the other for man. 

There appears, however, good reason to believe, as affirmed by 
a writer of authority, that when the first tables, prepared altogether 
without human labor, were given by the Lord to Moses, the writ- 
ings upon them were continued across them both, as they lay 
parallel to each other, each line passing across both tables as if 
they had been one, and afterwards divided into two. By this 






SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 135 

means would be represented a more full and entire conjunction 
than by any other ; and the contents of one could not be defaced 
or injured without equal injury to the inscription of both. Noth- 
ing could more beautifully set forth the reciprocal influence between 
Man and his Maker, and the uninterrupted descent of the divine 
into human spheres, so long as man's table was parallel with the 
Lord's. And any injustice to man would be an equal injustice to 
God. 

But these tables were broken, and others, prepared by the hand 
of man, substituted in their place. And on these, the inscriptions 
written by the finger of God, were separate. But they were kept 
in juxtaposition during the continuance of the Jewish dispensation. 
Now there must be some specific reason why the first tables were 
permitted to be destroyed, which cannot be attributed to mere acci- 
dent ; for, were such the case, it would destroy the force of all the 
allegorical illustrations of this representative people, not knowing 
whether any particular event was an accident or an allegory. 
Neither is it presumable that He who is omniscient, and who thence 
knew that they would be broken and rendered of no use, would 
miraculously have produced them, unless to represent some impor- 
tant truth. Furthermore, inasmuch as after they had been broken, 
the sins of the Israelites in worshipping the golden calf, which 
occasioned Moses to cast them out of his hand, was forgiven them, 
and the Lord had consented to write again the same w ? ords on two 
other tables, but in a different manner, (provided the lines run 
across the other two as above described,) no reason can be assigned 
why He commanded Moses to hew out the tables of stone to receive 
the writing, instead of again giving him the tables complete at once, 
as before, unless it was to represent some particular state or condi- 
tion of man. It cannot be supposed that the same divine 
condescension which re-produced the writing on the tables, would 
not have re-produced the tables themselves also, except for some 
specific cause to the contrary. 

If we examine the peculiar mode of performing sacrifices in con- 
firmation or ratification of any covenant or agreement between two 
parties, we shall find that they exactly correspond with our idea of 
the inscribing the Commandments on the first tables in continued 
though divided lines from one in to the other. When, for example, 
Abraham received the promise of an heir, the Lord made a covenant 
with him, saying, " Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the 



136 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

river of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates ;"* when, as com- 
manded, " he took a heifer three years old, a she-goat of three 
years old, and a ram of three years old, — and divided them in the 
midst, and laid each piece one against another"^ Also the blood 
of the sacrifices was divided as near as possible, in the same man- 
ner, when a covenant was made with the Lord. Thus we find 
that after " Moses wrote all the words of the Lord," then sacrifices 
were offered, and " Moses took half of the blood and put it into 
basins ; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar: And he 
took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the. peo- 
ple : and they said. All that the Lord hath said we will.do,and be 
obedient, (agreeing to the covenant :) . then Moses took the blood, 
and sprinkled on the people, and said : Behold the blood of the 
covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these 
words." J The Lord says : " I will give the men that have trans- 
gressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the 
covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf in 
twain and passed between the parts thereof ; — I will ever give 
them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them 
that seek their life."§ These examples are sufficient to show the 
parallel arrangement between the two parties. 

Now to me it is clearly evident that the first tables were repre- 
sentative of God's relation to man while without sin. In this 
condition there was no intercepting influence to prevent the divine 
sphere descending uninterruptedly clear across the plane of 
humanity, so that there was no real division between them, but 
reciprocally lived in each other, as our Lord says, " I in them and 
they in me." Sin was the divorcing principle between them, as 
was evinced by Moses breaking these tables as soon as he came 
within the sphere of the Israelites who were dancing around 
the golden calf, typical of carnal and sensual delights, in the 
merely natural man, which had subordinated their religious emo- 
tions to the same plane. At this, Moses " waxed hot, and he cast 
the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount ;" 
or, in other words, he felt the contrariety between the state of the 
people and that which his holy burden represented, signified by his 
anger waxing hot, and thence was led, by divine impulse, to do an 
act expressive of the want of adaptation of these tables of stone, 
prepared by immediate divine power, to the gross condition of the 
people ; he, therefore, broke these tables as indicative that there was 
*Gen. 15:18. tGen. 9 : 10. JEx. 24 : 3-8. §Jer. 34 : 18, 20. 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 137 

no longer this inter-blending condition between God and Man. 
And now a complete change in the order of things took place. 
The needs of man were no longer spontaneously supplied by the 
Lord, as in his pristine state, but he is now required to hew out 
for himself two more tables, after the pattern of the first, upon 
which to receive the same contents, but in a form more distinctly 
separate ; the lines no longer running across both in a parallel 
manner as before, but each table contained specific rules and regu- 
lations within itself. But by the juxtaposition of these tables in the 
Holy of Holies, we are given to understand that by a proper dis- 
charge of the duties on man's part, he can become reinstated into 
the same intimate relationship which the first tables represented. 

There is an influent principle from the Lord which enters into 
every man in the degree as he is prepared to receive it ; and his 
receptivity of this principle is in the ratio in which he puts away 
evils as sins and desires to be conjoined to Him ; moreover, man's 
inclination to put away his evils and become conjoined to the Lord 
is in proportion to his receptivity. Thus, action and re-action, ever 
increasing in a geometrical progression as the condition of man 
improves ; so that man becomes receptive of the Lord in the ratio 
in which he becomes negative to Him. It is the same principle 
which is manifested in the magnet, differing only in its adaptation 
to intelligent and morally accountable beings. Everywhere, 
throughout universal nature, is this reciprocal action, — manifested 
in its highest form between God and angels. 

In the nature of things, there can be but one Supreme Positive 
Force ; all others are relative to each other, but subordinate to 
this. Upon this universal law are founded successive gradations of 
active and passive agents, the phenomena of which are visible in 
every department of creation. And order and harmony are main- 
tained, both upon the plane of mind and matter, only by each 
sustaining to the other, their respective relations, and unitedly to 
the Supreme Force. Every deviation from this rule is attended 
with a derangement equal to the power which produces it. Nor 
can it be otherwise, for the higher and more potent the negative 
principle, the greater the disaster becomes whenever it fails to 
maintain its subordinate relation to its more positive force. It is 
no unwarrantable assumption to say, that were the Moon to refuse 
obedience to the superior attractive force of the Earth, and start off 
upon a self-reliant and erratic course, the consequence w T ould be felt 
throughout the solar system, and probably, sooner or later, through- 



138 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

out creation ; for a disorder, from that moment, would be 
inaugurated throughout the planetary system. But were the Sun, 
with all its vast retinue of planets, to refuse to revolve around a 
still more central orb, the disaster would be as much greater, as 
the Sun and its subordinates are superior in magnitude and force to 
the Moon. 

At whatever period in the history of the past eternity, or by 
whomsoever introduced, it is absolutely certain, that Sin exists 
among mankind. And it is no less certain, that it never could 
have become a fact in creation, nor could maintain its existence only 
by morally accountable beings refusing to render subordination to 
God. For the inferior to maintain a positive relation to the supe- 
rior is an inversion of order upon every plane of life. By it, moral 
and physical disorders are introduced into creation ; and in exact 
ratio to the multitude, either in the hells or on earth, who refuse to 
become negative to, and thereby orderly receptive of the sphere of 
the Creator. Each not only adds to the number, but increases the 
magnetic force by which others become involved, and the material 
elements infused with poison which re-acts upon all organic struct- 
ures ; wherefore, it is literally true, that every man eats and drinks 
the evils of his fellow- man ; so that " Sin, when it is finished, brings 
forth death," — temporal and eternal. 

These sins in their aggregate are what the Scriptures denominate 
Satan, Lucifer and Devil. Hence, we may define the term Devil 
as designating the whole aggregate multitude of evil spirits, personi- 
fied as one infernal monster, whose animating principle is the love 
of self in its deepest grounds, — the most essential selfishness, — in 
union with that Satanic cunning which self-love calls wisdom, and 
which are the most complete opposites to the Divine Love and 
Wisdom of the Lord. In other words, Satan, Lucifer and Devil 
are Scripture terms to designate the varied degrees of human wick- 
edness arising from a rebellion to the Divine requirements. And 
as it is the moral state, rather than the locality, which determines 
the character of the individual, all unregenerated persons and 
spirits, according to their degree of irreverence, are entitled to one 
of these appellations, as an integral part of the whole. The contest 
of these is against the Humanity of the Lord and His church. 

Every human being, regardless of his moral condition, is recep- 
tive of an influent principle from his Creator, without which he 
could not for a moment maintain his existence ; for it is in Him 
that we live, as well as move and have our being. But the order 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 139 

-which this assumes in the human faculties in virtue of the moral 
freedom of man, determines the character of the individual and 
the society, whether angelic or demoniacal, to which he interiorly 
belongs, — each recipient giving it form according to his own state 
or condition, as light takes the form and color of the medium 
through which it passes. And as death produces no real change 
in the interior state of the individual, but only removes the corpo- 
real form by which he is enabled to participate in the affairs of this 
life, whether virtuously or viciously ; the inhabitants of the earth, 
though differing immensely in variety and degrees of wickedness, 
are necessarily spiritually divided into two distinct and separate 
classes : one, who, by a love to their Redeemer, desire to promote 
His cause by keeping His commandments in faithfully discharging 
their religious duties to Him, and their moral obligations to others, 
by which the neighbor is regarded as themselves ; the other, who, 
from a radical centre of selfishness, having inverted within them- 
selves the order of the divine influx, interiorly hate the Lord for 
his prohibitions, though they may outwardly and intellectually 
confess their utility, seek to make themselves the attractive force of 
all the material and spiritual good of their neighbor. It would be 
impossible for these two classes to dwell together where the outward 
restraints of life are removed, and each live from their interior con- 
dition ; for, as one would constantly impart and receive nothing 
in return, and the other constantly receive and impart nothing, 
it would be a consumption of the former and a most diseased ple- 
thora of the latter ; and, moreover, it would become an energizing 
force in them for still greater evils. And as the wicked form their 
own state in violation of the Divine commandments, it will be seen 
that in this separation the mercy of the Lord is equally manifest 
in his judgments ; for, in separating them from the association of 
the pure by which they could absorb their magnetic forces, which 
would create still greater moral insanity in their constitution, they 
are mercifully deprived of the conditions by which they could 
plunge themselves into still greater misery. How true it is that 
the Lord is good to all and that his tender mercies are overall his 
works : ever watching over even His enemies, and so far as con- 
sistent with the freedom of man, protecting them from greater 
suffering. 

The angelic state was the original birthright of man ; but hav- 
ing once lost it he can now regain it only by bringing all his 
faculties into subordination to this divine influent principle. The 



140 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Christian Scriptures give us the direction for so doing. But had 
it not been for the darkening and bewildering eifects of sin, these 
would not have been necessary, for man would have intuitively 
understood the spirit of the Word without the necessity of the 
letter. And even now " he that doeth the works shall know of 
the doctrine" ; for so far as man yields to the dictations of the 
spirit by doing the works from a religious motive, he becomes 
receptive of that spirit by first becoming negative to it, and so 
enters into a relation with its spirit which quickens the perceptions 
and illuminates the understanding to a proper comprehension of its 
teachings. Sins which obstruct the Divine light, by sending up 
their opaque exhalations from the plane of disordered feelings, 
darkening the perceptions and bewildering the judgment, have 
their correspondence in the fogs which arise from stagnant pools 
and morasses, and which darken the sky and intercept the light of 
the sun. 

There is no association so intimate as that between the Lord 
and His people. Even the angels cannot enter into so intimate a 
relation with each other. The nearest semblance to this is the 
orderly relation of husband and wife. In fact this is but an ulti- 
mate relation of Divinity itself; — His sphere maintaining the par- 
ties in consociation for ends of use. But the conjunction between 
the Lord and His people is that commingling or blending of 
spheres — that reciprocal living in each other, the two in one, "I 
in you and you in me," — to such an extent as to set at defiance 
all effort to determine where one commences and the other ends. 
But the angels can have only a consociation with each other, not 
that connection and conjunction, in the sense here used. As the 
Divinity was in the Divine Humanity, so is He in us, as the soul 
in the body. Our Lord describes this connection under the simile 
of a vine and its branches; — the same vital principle extending 
alike through both — the fruit of the vine culminating upon the 
branches. In fact, humanity is but the ultimate plane for the 
fructification of the Divinity ; for we must bear in mind that crea- 
tion, in its every department, is correspondential. Inasmuch as it 
had its birth from the Creator, it must represent its Progenitor in 
the fundamental principles by which it is governed. The difficulty 
in a proper comprehension of this idea lies in the liability of the 
human mind to consider abstract parts of nature rather than the 
universe as a whole. But it will be remembered that God is 
infinite in conjugial properties — Emotion and Direction; or, as 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 141 

the New Church expresses it, Love and Wisdom ; and from these 
properties. infinitude has its birth. It is not a creation in the sense 
in which we go to work and construct an edifice, or a piece of 
mechanism, but is a legitimate sequence of the Divine existence. 

It will not be disputed that the earth is the fruit-bearing plane of 
the sun, and that it requires their united action in order to produce 
vegetation. I shall hereafter show in the chapter on " Marriage 
as a Principle " that neither the sun nor the earth, abstractly, 
have either light or heat, but that these properties are the result of 
the blended spheres of the two orbs, on precisely the same principle 
that emotion and intelligence are the result of the reciprocal influ- 
ence of the sexes ; so that the earth becomes the fruit-bearino; 
plane of the actinic forces of the sun, as the wife of the husband. 
If it be said that this makes the Creator dependent upon humanity 
in order to maintain a reciprocal action, I reply, that He himself 
took on Humanity with all its depravities, which he brought into 
order in His own person, and thereby became the Alpha and 
Omega, — in other words, embracing the whole circle of Divinity 
and Humanity within Himself. Without human depravity there 
would have been no necessity of this, for humanity would have 
maintained a negative and an orderly productive relation to the 
Divinity, as the earth to the sun. But He could not have taken 
on Humanity had it not first have sprung from His own existence. 
And the whole paraphernalia of creation, as it appears to me, was 
for the final object that there might be a conjugial action between 
spirit and matter, God and humanity. But when sin divorced 
the two by becoming an insulator between them, the Lord descend- 
ed to the plane of humanity, — for humanity could not ascend to 
Him any more than an adulterous wife can love her husband, — 
and instituted a new marriage between Himself and the church, 
which consists of such portions of humanity as accept of Him as their 
Bridegroom. It is in this sense that he declares Himself to be the 
husband of the church, and of which all mankind are members, in 
the sense here referred to, just so far as they fill the wifely rela- 
tion, viz. : love and obedience, which are the wifely qualities. To 
no other principle is He ever wedded. 

This particular point of our subject is of such vital importance, 
and one so little understood, that notwithstanding it mav be a 
seeming digression, I must be allowed to trace it one step further. 
In fact this is necessary to a proper understanding of the real 
nature of sin ; for the more we learn of the relation of the parties, 

18 



142 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the better we are able to comprehend the consequences of any 
infringement of the obligations growing oat of their relationship. 

The Supreme Divinity contains within Himself the positive and 
negative forces, which are but other terms to designate a universal 
conjugial principle, from which creation sprung. To this creation 
He sustains, not only the relation of progenitor, but also the life- 
imparting fountain by which its orderly existence is maintained. 
Nature, like its cause, contains the conditions of positive and nega- 
tive action, which are mediumistically receptive of the influent, 
creative force. These forces cannot be inherent qualities of matter 
for they are creative properties ; hence derivative from. the Creator. 
To attribute them to matter, per se, would be either to embrace 
the absurd ditheistic idea, or that nature is God, — neither of which 
can be accepted by the Christian mind. To every such mind it is 
clearly evident that they are not inherent, but influent principles. 
The properties of magnetism and electricity are inherent, for 
these are the immediately proceeding principles from the Creator, 
and from which creation derives its 're-creative force. I shall here 
make a distinction between magnetism and electricity ; not in 
their primeval qualities, but in their relative degrees. The former 
I shall apply exclusively to the plane of mind ; the latter, exclu- 
sively to the plane of matter. 

It is a law as universal as existence, that every individual 
entity, whether a component part of a structure, or the whole, 
has a positive and a negative, or what is the same, an impartive 
and receptive relation, one part with the other, and this as a unit, 
witfi some other individual entity. It is impossible to conceive of 
any phenomenon in nature which does not derive its existence from 
this law ; for the law itself has its birth from the conjugial forces 
of the Creator, and His connection with His creation ; His sphere 
being graduated to every possible grade of existence, by the one 
immediately preceding it; hence it is the principle by which all 
actions are governed. To remove a single link in the chain of 
gradation, would be to so derange the orderly descent of the 
Divine potency, that it would become a destructive or a smiting 
force to all beneath the breach. Bearing in mind this fundamen- 
tal truth, it will be easy to account for many remarkable phe- 
nomena in the Jewish history, which are otherwise inexplicable. 

It is a conspicuous fact in both the Old and New Testaments, 
that the parties chosen as the avenues of the Lord's immediate 
descent to His people, were associated in pairs,— one evidently 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 143 

holding a positive relation to the other; and in the Old Testament 
the negative party immediately connecting with the people as the 
officiating priest, so as to afcduate the Omnipotent force to their 
condition ; but this order is reversed in the New. The necessity 
of this arrangement will appear as we proceed with our argument. 
Moses and Aaron were chosen as the divine instruments to coope- 
rate with each other, in the release of the children of Israel from 
Egyptian bondage. The Lord said to Moses : u Is not Aaron, the 
Levite, thy brother ? I know that he can speak well. And also, 
behold, he cometh forth to meet thee ; and when he seeth thee, he 
will be glad in his heart. And thou shalt speak unto him, and 
put words in his mouth : and I will be with thy mouth, and with 
his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be 
thy spokesman unto the people ; and he shall be, even he shall be 
to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of 
God."* And again : " the Lord said unto Moses : See, I have 
made thee a god to Pharaoh ; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy 
prophet. "f Throughout every expression Aaron is clearly indi- 
cated as the representative of the negative or feminine principle, 
so that he is subordinate to Moses and receptive of his condition, 
and is glad in his heart when he meets him, and kisses him. 
Our Lord, also, when he sent out his twelve apostles, sent them 
two by two : evidently to fill the same required conditions. The 
stern, resolute, and uncompromising Peter, in association with the 
confiding and affectionate John, were well calculated to become 
the mediums of the Divine power in the cure of diseases, causing 
the lame to walk, and the prison doors to open. But for the 
descent of the Holy Ghost as of a rushing mighty wind, required 
the presence of all the apostles, for they unitedly* represented 
every divine condition. 

From the time of the commencement of the priesthood of 
Aaron until our Lord's passion upon the cross, the Ark of the 
Covenant, whether in the tabernacle or temple, was the centre 
from which the Divine forces emanated to that people, and in 
fact, to the world. Through it God held an immediate relation 
with the world ; so much so that the forces connected with it were 
like those of a huge electro-magnetic machine, wdiich became 
terrifically fearful whenever intercepted in their orderly descent to 
the world, so that none but such as had been divinely prepared to 
become conductors of these forces, could come in contact with it 
*Ex. 4:14-16: t7:l. 



144 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

in any safety. Uzzali was struck dead as by an electric shock by 
putting out his hand to steady it from falling. And the account 
adds thai " the anger of the Lord w*s Kindled against Uzzah, and 
God smote him there for his error."* But as Uzzah's motive was 
a good one, it is not to be supposed that " the anger of the Lord" 
was anything more than appearance arising from the violence of 
the shock which the unfortunate man received. No one can for a 
moment believe that the Lord malignantly smote him for a well- 
intentioned, though an indiscrete act. David himself was so 
afraid of its power that he did not dare to receive it, but sent 
it to the house of Obed-edom for three months, where it blessed 
the whole household with its hallowed influence ; after which 
David, in company with the whole house of Israel, went and 
brought up the Ark, amid sacrifices, shouting, and the sound of 
trumpets, into the city, and placed it in the tabernacle. But this 
was not the only evidence of its power. After destroying the 
idol Dagon, it smote the Philistines, both small and great, and 
afflicted them with emerods, or what we denominate hemorrhoids,! 
which caused them to send it to Bethshemesh, where fifty thousand 
and three score and ten men fell victims to its power. Evidently, 
their condition was such that they could not endure the immediate 
presence of its Divine force, and they fell before it as before some 
pestilential disease. Nor is it strange that such was the case, for 
as all physical conditions have their rise in the moral state of the 
individual, Divine forces brought to bear immediately upon those 
who are not conditioned to receive it, would necessarilv produce 
the most disastrous results. It is only little by little that man is 
prepared to associate with his Maker. Hence it is, that no man 
can look upon His face and live. The contrast between unregene- 
rated man and God, is by far too great to allow anything like an 
immediate association. I should quicker think of placing myself 
in relation with the focalized, electrical forces of creation, than, 
while in an unregenerated state, with the forces of the Supreme 
Being, unmodified to my condition by the Divine Humanity of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. And the only reason that I can imagine 
why the Ark did not slay thousands, where it did one, is, that in 
mercy to man, the Divine forces were so far withdrawn from it as 
to greatly modify its action upon the world. But as soon as the 
Lord's Humanity was perfected, so as to become a 'perfect avenue 

* 2 Sam. 6:7. f This disease, among others, was threatened to the Jews for 
disobedience. 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 145 

for the Divine forces, even the solid rocks were rent by them, and 
the atmosphere was so changed in its electrical condition as to 
cause almost total darkness for the period of three hours. And 
the Lord warned even Aaron by Moses not to enter at all times 
into the holy place, within the vail before the mercy-seat, which was 
upon the Ark, that he die not, for the Lord would appear in a 
cloud upon the mercy-seat.* 

When Moses came down from the mount with the two tables of 
stone containing the ten commandments, after having been forty 
days with the Lord, his face shown with such brilliancy that he 
was obliged to cover it with a vail whenever he appeared in the 
presence of his people. During this long period of such intimate 
relation with the Lord, he became so surcharged with the divine 
principles, tlmt his face became brilliant to others as a sun to its 
satellites. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah can easily be 
accounted for upon the same principle. Lot and his family were 
the only mediums through whom the divine sphere could flow to 
that miscreant people, for the angel to whom this judgment was 
delegated, says to Lot: "Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot 
do any thing till thou be come thither ; "f clearly indicating that 
through him the equilibrium of the magnetic, and through it the 
electrical forces were sufficiently maintained to protect those cities. 
But no sooner had he made his escape and yielded them into the 
hands of the aveno-ino; angel, than the wickedness of their inhabit- 
ants so completely deranged the electrical forces that it rained 
brimstone and fire upon the doomed plains, so that the " smoke of 
the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." 

I can conceive of nothing more true in a philosophical point of 
view, than that the righteous are the salt of the earth and the light 
of the world. Neither is it any less true that wickedness produces all 
the moral and physical disorders of our planet ; for human magnetism 
being the most positive and subtle principle connected with mun- 
dane existence, it pervades the electrical forces and controls their 
action. The electrical forces, in turn, pervade and control the 
conditions of the atmosphere, the productiveness of the soil, the 
perfectability of vegetation, and the health of the organic structure ; 
whence u the whole creation groaneth and traveleth in pain to- 
gether " in consequence of man's apostacy. 

The potency of human magnetism, when exerted for the cure of 
disease and in holding the mind of a passive agent in subordination 

* Lev. 16:2. t Gen. 19:22. 



146 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

to its influence during the most painful surgical operations ; and 
also in directing the vital forces of the system, in accelerating the 
circulation of the blood, or in nearly suspending the systaltic move- 
ments of the heart, producing temporary paralysis of any particular 
part, or the rigidity of the whole body, have been of such frequent 
exhibition as to require no further proof at my hand. It conveys 
with it the inmost life-principle, which is the most potent force con- 
nected with organic structure. But as a fountain cannot bring; 
forth both bitter and sweet waters, so the magnetizer can impart 
only such qualities as he possesses. Whatever these qualities may 
be, they set up a new and corresponding action in the subject, 
which may be salutary or disastrous, according to the respective 
condition of the patient. Mind being superior to matter, the mag- 
netic forces pervade and control the electric ; so that the will of 
the operator, to the extent in which he can control the mind of his 
subject, can direct the electrical currents of his system. And as it 
is by the electrical currents that the mere organic life is sustained, 
the pbj'sical as well as the moral condition of the patient, is largely 
subject to the will of the magnetizer. But as soon as the control- 
ling ivill ceases its operations, by which the electrical currents 
were coerced in certain relations and conditions, the new combina- 
tion of elements now introduced into the system may establish the 
conditions of either life or death in the patient. Hence, it is that 
there is a large class of patients upon which one physician can 
exert no salutary influence, but which another of the same practice, 
will readily cure what the other only made worse. With all sus- 
ceptible persons, and especially in chronic diseases, a proper selection 
of magnetic forces is of much more importance than the most 
judicious administration of drugs. But no drugs, medicinally 
administered, however ill adapted to the needs of the patient, can 
prove anything like as disastrous as magnetism flowing from a cor- 
rupt source. 

The dynamic and static properties which we attribute to inert 
matter, are but other terms expressing the positive and negative 
electrical action derived from the Creator, and which immediately 
controls creation in its lowest physical aspect. This electrical force 
being below the plane of mind, is without moral accountability, so 
that it has no derangino; influence onlv so far as it becomes infused 
with the magnetic sphere of man, which alone can divert it from 
its legitimate use. Every thing therefore brings forth after its own 
kind, having neither intellect nor moral qualities to re-beget by the 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 147 

assimilation of magnetic spheres. Hence we discover in the 
planetary system and among those animals governed only by 
instinct, a regular periodicity to everything like conjugial proclivi- 
ties. The planets, though they maintain their orderly course in a 
fraternal point of view, are as periodical, both in their movements 
and in their prolific tendencies by which they bring forth vegeta- 
tion, as sentient beings. And animals, notwithstanding they 
instinctively herd, have no inclination to reproduce their species 
only at stated periods, at which time the electrical forces of their 
system urge them to this use in a manner too powerful to be 
resisted. 

But with Man it is different. He is not only controlled by an 
electrical force in common with the rest of creation, and which is 
an exclusive property of matter, but also by a magnetic principle 
belonging to the sphere of mind, and wdiich is an exclusive prop- 
erty of spirit. If this be objected to by saying that the serpent 
possesses the magnetic principle in a preeminent degree, I reply, 
that the serpent derives its existence from the magnetic forces of 
disordered human spheres, and is but the foealization, or the 
embodied living form of human depravity. Wherefore, though 
he possesses symmetry of form and grace of movement, which 
would otherwise render him attractive, he is the most abhorred of 
all creatures, and from which man instinctively turns as his most 



deadly foe. The disorder of its magnetism is abundantly con- 
spicuous in the fact that he uses it only as a means for the destruc- 
tion of others, for the sake of self; thus rendering him a perfect 
mirror of the world's depravity, where self-love is paramount to 
every divine consideration. Electrical action is inferior and subor- 
dinate to magnetic ; so that the serpent in common with man, 
his progenitor, possesses a controlling influence. Hence, however 
powerful may be the electrical forces of the brute, he yields obe- 
dience to the magnetic principle of man. 

From what has now been said, it will be seen that magnetism is 
the highest and the first fundamental principle connected with the 
human constitution, and possessed alone by man in contradistinc- 
tion to all other sentient beings ; and I believe the hypothesis to be 
well founded, that it is the only principle which renders him pre- 
eminent to the brute. The earth is absorbent of the influence of 
the sun in virtue of its own atmosphere, without which there 
would be neither light nor heat. Upon these electrical properties 
every other condition depends. The Religious faculties are the 



148 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

moral atmosphere of the individual, which, though they may be 
shamefully perverted, having their foundation in the organic struc- 
ture, can never become obliterated. Magnetism, in the sense here 
used, is the influent principle received by all human beings imme- 
diately from their Creator, in virtue of these faculties ; so that 
the eternal perpetuity of their identity is an inevitable effect of 
man's physiological constitution. Man can no more rid himself of 
this constitution, than the earth of its atmosphere ; and so long 
as he possesses it, the Divine Son will continue to pour His influ- 
ence upon him. If there is no impure exhalations from the carnal 
nature, to blur the moral atmosphere, the brilliancy of this Son 
will be continually manifest, so that the individual will enjoy per- 
petual noon-day glory, for this Son never sets, so that " there is no 
night there, for He is the light thereof." 

Moreover, as the Divine magnetism pervades universal nature, 
man, in virtue of his religious faculties which act as absorbent 
glands of this principle, becomes charged with it, which establishes 
in him a force paramount to all other .terrestrial creatures. Neverthe- 
less, its potency is in exact ratio to the order it assumes in the 
individual ; so that one angel is able to chase a thousand devils, 
and two put ten thousand to flight ; for as the sunbeam looses its 
brilliancy by passing through an opaque medium, so does the 
Divine magnetism in passing into a corrupt constitution. Hence, 
wisdom and depravity are always in an inverse ratio to each other. 
It is a legitimate sequence growing out of the relation of things. 
The depraved man may be intelligent, for this he can derive from 
mere worldly science with which he is able to store his memory ; 
but wisdom is a divine principle and can be obtained only by a 
union with the Lord. u Length of days are in her right hand ; 
and in her left hand riches and honor. Her ways are ways of 
pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to 
them that lay hold upon her; and happy is every one that retaineth 
her."* 

Keeping in view these fundamental principles of magnetic and 
electrical action, and their source, it will be easy to understand the 
necessity of the Divine Humanity and of the Christian Scriptures. 
Man, in his primeval state, was but little lower than the angels, 
crowned with glory and honor, and while he lived on earth held 
free communication with God. At that time there was that union 
and blending of spirit — " I in you, and you in me" — which made 

*Prov. 3 : 16-18. 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 149 

the two one, in the sense in which husband and wife are one, 
whilst living in strict obedience to all the Divine requirements. 
In other words, humanity, as a unit, was the negative principle of 
the Divinity, and which confidingly received the conjugial embrace 
of the Lord, and gave birth into the ultimate planes of life, to 
every Divine quality, modified by the human constitution. While 
in this condition there was an uninterrupted flow of the magnetic 
forces of the Creator into His creation, so that order and harmony 
pervaded the universe of both mind and matter. There were no 
discords in human association — no venomous reptiles, noxious 
insects, nor poisonous plants^ no savage beast to make the night 
hideous with its carniverous greed, no blurring of the sky with 
fogs from miasmatic pools ; nor rending the heavens with terrific 
peals of thunder bursting forth from the struggles of the electric 
forces to regain their lost equilibrium ; " but there went up a mist 
from the earth and watered the wdiole face of the ground." Man 
ivas the conducting medium between God and Nature. Sin is the 
only insulator betiveen the two. 

The Humanity of the Lord was an imperative necessity in order 
to regain the lost equilibrium between the Creator and His crea- 
tion. This humanity He purified from sin, re-wedded it to 
Himself, and endowed it with the properties of Omnipresent 
Divinity, and through it maintains an immediate relation with the 
ultimates of nature. There was no longer the smiting force of 
the Ark, but the Humanity became the scabbard which shielded 
the sword of justice to all who will accept of it by yielding a willing 
obedience to the Divine requirements. When the Divine took its 
leave from the inner sanctuary of the Jewish temple, to unite with 
the glorified Humanity, it rent the vail from top to bottom, show- 
ing that it was no longer needed for the protection of man, as there 
was no longer any partition w^all between the human and the 
Divine. So instantaneous and powerful was the rush of the Divine 
magnetism into the electrical currents of the universe, that it pro- 
duced the most terrific convulsions ; causing the earth to quake, 
the solid rocks to rend, the graves of the saints to open, and the 
atmosphere, for the space of three hours, to become imperforable 
to the rays of the sun. 

But the question is, how are these phenomena, in connection 
with this event, to be accounted for upon any scientific principle ? 
Or what connection is there between these remarkable occurrences 
and the passion of our Lord ? I reply that they were the legiti- 

20 



150 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

mate sequence of the reunion of the Divine with the human. It has 
been previously shown that the electrical forces of matter are con- 
trolled by the magnetic principles of mind. And it is only when the 
former becomes disordered and congested that it refuses this subor- 
dination to the latter, and is led to react upon the cause of its derange- 
ment. For ages human magnetism had flown from a radical 
centre of selfishness, constantly freighting the disintegrating princi- 
ples of sin, which had so corrupted the electrical forces that they 
had deranged every part of creation. Everything, to a greater or 
less extent, was out of joint, and made to act contrary to what it was 
designed. For more than three hundred years the prophets had ceas- 
ed, and the Jewish temple was left as the only avenue of Divine in- 
flux. But this avenue was not human, but material; so that the most 
important link in the chain of connection between the primeval 
cause and the ultimate effect, was left out in consequence of its 
moral unfitness to fill its appointed place in creation. The Divine 
sphere thus connecting directly with matter, without the proper 
graduating medium, was more electric than magnetic in its effects; 
so that it became a smiting force to all who immediately approach- 
ed it without the proper fitness for so doing. But it was ultimately 
so far withdrawn, that what was once a house of prayer, became a 
den of thieves ; and even a corrupt priesthood could enter the 
inner sanctuary with safety. At our Lord's crucifixion He rent 
the vail of that once holy place, and thus opened it to all who saw 
fit to enter ; for it no longer contained either sanctity or power, — 
the equilibrium between the Creator and Creation having now 
become established through the medium of His own Humanity. 
The Ark was no longer of use in maintaining the order of the 
world, nor as a means through which man could commune with 
the Lord ; but was soon superceded by the Holy Word in which 
the Law and the Gospel are wedded, so as to produce the same 
coopposite action, as we discover elsewhere in universal existence, 
— the wisdom principle of the Old Testament holding a positive 
relation to the love principle of the New. 

The account as given by Matthew is : " Jesus, when he had 
cried with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the 
vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom ; 
and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent : and the graves were 
opened ; and many bodies which slept arose and came out of the 
graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city and 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 151 

appeared unto many."* No account is here given of the darkness 
which prevailed from the sixth to the ninth hour, mentioned by 
both Mark and Luke. 

Now it is a well known fact that the equilibrium of the electri- 
cal forces become disturbed in exact ratio to the changes ' m the 
conditions of matter ; and in proportion to the degree of this dis- 
turbance is the force excited by electricity to resume its balance in 
the scale of nature. In ordinary electricity, the law of action is 
that dissimilar electricities attract, and similar electricities repel 
one another. These are what we may denominate connate forces, 
having their origin from corresponding principles, so that they 
hold such a direct and immediate relation to each other as to pre- 
clude the necessity of any intermediate agency. These forces unite 
themselves as coopposite principles, the tension of each being sus- 
tained by that of the other. But in Voltaic electricity, on the 
contrary, where two entirely dissimilar metals are used, such, for 
example, as copper and zinc, similar currents, or such as are moving 
in the same direction, attract one another, while a mutual repulsion 
is exerted between dissimilar currents, or such as flow in opposite 
directions ; for, in this case, there is a marriage of forces in each 
opposing current ; and as nature abhors a polygamy of forces, there 
can be no affinity between the opposing currents, but either may 
become receptive of a higher principle, as man is receptive of his 
Creator. Connate affinity, having its origin in the Deity, is a law of 
universal existence. In every grade of mind and matter there is a 
copulative tendency between connate entities ; and the union of 
these forces creates the conditions for the influx of the next higher 
principle, by which a universal chain of connection is established, 
— each discrete degree becoming the positive force to the next 
below. It is impossible in the very nature of things, for a single 
link in this chain ever to be severed. Neither can the orderly 
descent of the Divine influence be diverted from its legitimate use 
only by morally accountable beings ; but as these stand next to 
God, creation becomes contaminated to the extent of their perver- 
sion ; for this influence passes through man into every other 
department of nature and partakes of his condition, as water of the 
soil through which it flows. 

When the wires attached to a Voltaic pile are brought into con- 
tact, the circuit is completed, so that the electrical currents meet 
and neutralize each other ; at first producing the shock and other 
* Matt. 27. 



152 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

electrical phenomena, after which the electric currents continue to 
flow uninterruptedly in the circuit. The intensity of the Voltaic 
current is in proportion to the intensity of the affinities concerned 
in its production, and the quantity of electricity produced is in pro- 
portion to the quantity of matter rendered chemically active during 
its evolution. The Humanity of the Lord, as soon as it became puri- 
fied of every evil which it took on from the virgin Mary, became the 
connecting medium between God and Nature on precisely the same 
principle of the wire connecting the copper and zinc plates in a 
Voltaic pile, diifering only in its adaptation to the coopposite forces 
concerned. His passion upon the cross was the last finishing 
stroke for this office ; and no sooner had this been effected than 
the electrical phenomena took place throughout the world. When 
abstractly viewed from a philosophical stand-point, the only wonder 
is that it had not rent the earth into a thousand fragments and 
destroyed every living thing. It could have been only by the 
Divine mercy that such a catastrophe was prevented. The flow of 
the Divine sphere through the Ark for so many centuries, undoubt- 
edly had much to do in maintaining the equilibrium between the 
magnetic and electrical forces ; but as soon as the Divine Humanity 
was established as the medium between the two, a new order of 
things commenced. God was no longer merely Jehovah, the 
great positive creative Being, but He had also taken on the 
extreme ultimates of matter, purified it and rendered it Divine, so 
that He was not only the Alpha but the Omega, not only the 
beginning but the end, not only the first but the last; for He 
now embraced within Himself the complete circle of both spirit and 
matter. Thus Jesus Christ is the manifested Jehovah ; and the 
whole Trinity centres in His glorified person ; the Father denot- 
ing his inmost Divinity ; the Son his Divine Humanity, and the 
Holy Spirit his Divine Operation and Influence, proceeding from 
his Divinity and Humanity in union ; answering to the soul, the 
body, and the operation of both together, in man, who, we are 
expressly informed, was created in the image and likeness of God. 
At the consummation of this, the electrical currents become so 
agitated by the immediate Divine magnetism, that the insulating 
obstructions could not withstand the terrible force now so suddenly 
brought to bear upon them. And as the earth contains a large 
amount of non-conductors, such as lime, marble, chalk, transparent 
stones, vitrescences, etc., it was made to quake by the electrical 
forces suddenly regaining their lost equilibrium, and evidently 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 153 

such rocks as were insulators were rent asunder by this universal 
commotion. The vapor of the atmosphere is, also, the conduct- 
ing medium of the electric forces ; hence, this vapor is constantly 
subject to the changing condition of the earth. In fact, clouds 
are but the result of the condensation of the atmospherical vapors 
effected by the unequalized condition of the electric currents. 
These clouds become the insulators between the sun and our 
planet. Light being the result of the blending of solar and ter- 
restrial forces, can exist only in the ratio as the equilibrium is main- 
tained between them. The intense excitement produced in the 
terrestrial forces by the powerful influence now brought to bear 
upon them, so condensed the atmospheric vapors, that they were 
formed into dense clouds, which so completely obstructed the solar 
influence as to cause darkness to prevail for the space of three 
hours, before the balance of power was sufficiently regained to dis- 
perse the clouds, and to allow the proper reciprocal action of the 
two orbs. 

It is a well known phenomenon in nature, that an electrical dis- 
charge is usually followed by a sudden gust of wind. The equi- 
librium of the atmosphere is disturbed by the heat and velocity of 
lightning, and the condensation of vapors, so that the air rushes 
towards those parts where a degree of vacuity or rarefaction has 
been produced. Consonant with this principle, ten days subse- 
quent to our Lord's ascension, which is known as the day of 
Pentacost, while the apostles were all of one accord in one place, 
" suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing, 
mighty wind, and filled all the house where they were sitting. 
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and 
it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy 
Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave 
them utterance."* In this brief narrative we have a description 
of the proceeding principle denominated the Holy Spirit flowing 
forth from the wedded union of the Supreme Divinity and the 
now Glorified Humanity, and through this Humanity, re-connect- 
ing an apostate race with its Creator. During the thirteen days 
which intervened between the Passion upon the cross and the day 
of Pentecost, the electrical forces became so far equalized as to 
permit in safety the promised descent of the Holy Spirit into the 
human constitution ; but not without producing violent electrical 
phenomena in the atmosphere, and an astonishing effect upon the 

* Acts 2. 



154 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

parties immediately concerned. Notwithstanding the apostles had 
long been in the most intimate relation with their Divine Teacher, 
and had for years been receptive of His magnetic forces, neither 
they nor the atmosphere were in a condition to receive the Divine 
sphere in this new mode of operation, without producing the effect 
so graphically described by the apostle. While the Lord, in pro- 
pria personce, was in association with His apostles on earth, His 
humanity was not yet glorified ; hence, was not a perfect medium 
for the transmission of the Divine forces. But no sooner had it 
become established in its new condition of Omnipresent Divinity, 
than these forces assumed a new and more potent form, having 
now an immediate reference to the moral constitution, and me- 
diately through it to the physical universe. He had taken the 
fullest possible connection with the material world, by living upon 
it and appropriating its elements to the building up of His own 
organic structure ; and as there is no higher force which can inter- 
cept between it and Him, it is impossible for this connection ever 
to be broken ; so that whatever may be the moral condition of 
man, or however much the world may be disordered by him, the 
Lord holds an immediate relation with it through His own Human- 
ity, whence it can never again be destroyed, though much impaired 
by sin. 

For several days subsequent to the crucifixion and before the mate- 
rial elements of the Divine Humanity had fully assimilated with 
the Omnipresent Divinity, our Lord repeatedly made himself visi- 
ble to the external senses, and walked, ate, and communed with 
those who held such an affectionate relation to Him as to form the 
ultimate basis of His visible presence. But He never appeared to 
the external senses subsequent to the day of Pentecost. The ma- 
terial properties of His resurrected body had become so inter- 
diffused into the Omnipresent Divinity that He was everywhere 
felt, but seen only through the telescope of faith : not that He had 
receded from humanity, but had retired from the exterior to the 
interior consciousness, where He is personally present with all who 
admit Him into their affections ; so that the kingdom of heaven is 
now within and not without the individual. Man is now no longer 
necessitated to remain in the outer courts of the temple for fear 
of being smitten by the Divine magnetism too suddenly operating 
upon the electrical currents of his system, for the Lord's flesh had 
become the vail which modified this force to man's condition. 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 155 

In view of these facts, and the Omnipotence of God, we cease to 
wonder at the remarkable events which make np a large share of 
Biblical history ; for all these were but the legitimate sequence of 
the condition of man and the relation of the Supreme Being to His 
creation. Is it stranee that Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed 
by the disordered electrical forces, when there were not ten right- 
eous persons upon those extensive plains ? Is it strange that the Old 
World was swallowed up in the flood of iniquity when the hearts 
of men were set to do evil and that continually ? Is it strange 
that Moses who was surcharged with a divine magnetism could 
smite the rock and cause the waters to gush out ? Is it strange 
that Uzzah was smitten in reaching forth his hand to steady the 
Ark wherein the divine forces were focalized ? It would have been 
infinitely more strange had he have survived his indiscretion. Is 
it strange that while our Lord was immediately connected with 
humanity He could cause the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the 
lame to walk, and the dead to come forth ? Is it strange that the 
chains were smitten from Peter, and the prison doors flew open for 
his exit, while those who were filled with the potency of the Holy 
Spirit were praying for his release ? Is it strange that disease 
and premature death make such fearful havoc among mankind 
while alienated from God ? or that sin, when it is finished, brings 
forth death ? Is it strange that France sank into the most shame- 
less corruptions when the Bible was hunted from the nation and 
men sought to substitute a depraved reason for divine wisdom ? 
Is it strange that America which has so far ignored God and the 
right as to sanction human bondage, has undergone the most de- 
solating war which has marred the pages of history for centuries ? 
Oh, the terrific fearfulness and desolating influence of sin ? 

rt The immense power," says Dr. Bushnell, "of the human will 
over the physical substances of the world and the conjunctions of 
its causes, is seldom adequately conceived. Almost everything, 
up to the moon, is capable of being somehow varied or affected by 
it. Being a force supernatural, it is continually playing itself into 
the chemistries and external combinations of matter, converting 
shapes, reducing or increasing quantities, transferring positions, 
framing and dismembering conjunctions, turning poisons into medi- 
cines, and reducing fruits to poisons, till at length scarcely any 
thing is left in its properly natural state. Some of these changes, 
which it is the toil of human life to produce, are beneficent ; and 
a multitude of others represent, alas ! too faithfully, the prime djs- 



156 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

tinction of sin ; the acting of a power against God, or as it was not 
made to act. Could we only bring together into a complete inven- 
tory all the new structures, compositions, inventions, shapes, quali- 
ties, already produced by man, which are, in fact, the furniture 
only of his sin — means of self-indulgence, instruments of violence, 
shows of pride, instigations of appetite, incitements and institutes 
of corrupt pleasure — all the leprosies and leper-houses of vice, 
the poisons of oppression, the hospitals and battle-fields of war, we 
should see a face put on the world which God never gave it, and 
which only represents the bad conversion it has suffered, under 
the immense and ever-industrious perversities of sin.''* 

It is a most remarkable provision of the Creator, that the truths 
of the Holy Word become obscured or hidden from human per- 
ception in exact ratio to the interior depravity of the individual. 
As the electric currents of the earth control the transparency of the 
atmosphere, so does the moral condition of man determine the 
quality of his religious perceptions. When we discover a law upon 
one plane of existence, it may be traced through every other; for 
it is everywhere precisely the same fundamental principle, differing 
only in its mode of action by its adaptation to the plane upon which 
the observation is made. The truths, therefore, of the Bible are as 
much adapted to the angels, whatever may be the grade of their 
existence, as to man. It is upon this fundamental principle that 
Swedenborg founds his very rational observations of the three dis- 
crete degrees of the Word, viz : the natural, the spiritual and the 
celestial sense. It is like a seed which contains a hull, a meat, and 
an interior life germ, which gives existence to the outer form. 
One cannot be maintained, or brought into any practical use, with- 
out the other. In every part of the Word there is a marriage of 
good and truth, and these can never be divorced from each other ; 
hence the first condition of understanding divine truths, is a life of 
purity. The earth is no more certain to become fruitful by the 
fructifying influence of the sun, than is an upright man to become 
illuminated by the Christian Scriptures. 

It is moreover to be observed that as in the Divine Humanity 
dwelt all the fullness of the God-head bodily, so in the literal sense 
of the Word is contained the fullness, the sanctity and the power of 
the Holy Spirit. It is only in virtue of its spirit being enveloped 
in the materiality of the letter that it is adapted to man's unregen- 
erated condition, and becomes the only immediate agency in his 

* Nature and Supernaturalism, p. 186. 






SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 157 

regeneration. To enter into direct relation with its spirit without 
the letter, it would become a smiting force, as was the Supreme 
Divinity without the Divine Humanity. As no man could look 
upon the face of Jehovah and live, neither could we become imme- 
diately conjoined to the spirit of the Word and survive the 
potency of its action. It is only the pure in heart which can have 
any conception of the spirit, much less enter into conjunction with 
it. Consonant with this, Swedenborg makes the following remarka- 
ble statement in reference to the Word when divested of its 
materiality, which I will transcribe in full. 

" There are many wonderful phenomena resulting from the 
Word in the spiritual world, of which I will here mention a few. 
The Word itself, kept in the most sacred recesses of the temples 
in that world, shines in the sight of the angels like a great star, 
and sometimes like a sun, and from the bright radiance with 
which it is encompassed, there is also an appearance as of beautiful 
rainbows formed around about it ; this phenomenon is exhibited 
as soon as ever the sacred repository of the Word is opened. 
That all and every particular truth of the Word shines with a 
bright light, was made manifest to me from this circumstance, that 
when any single verse out of the Word is transcribed on paper, 
and the paper is thrown up into the air, the paper itself shines 
with a bright light, of the same form with that in which it was 
cut out ; so that spirits have the power of producing by the Word 
a variety of bright lucid figures, and also of birds and fishes. But 
what is still more wonderful, if any person imbued with genuine 
truth rubs his face, hands or clothes against the Word, when it is 
open, so as to touch the writing with them, his face, hands, and 
clothes shine as if he were standing in a star, encompassed with 
its light. This I have often seen and wondered at ; and hence it 
was evident to me what occasioned the face of Moses to shine, 
when he brought the tables of the covenant down from Mount 
Sinai. 

" Besides these, there are many other wonderful phenomena 
resulting from the Word in the spiritual world ; as, for instance, 
if any person who is in falses looks at the Word, as it lies in its 
holy repository, there arises a thick darkness before his eyes, in 
consequence of which the Word appears to him of a black color, 
and sometimes as if it were covered with soot ; but if the same 
person touches the Word, it occasions an explosion, attended with 
a loud noise, and he is thrown to a corner of the room, where he 



158 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

lies for about the space of an hour, as if he were dead. If any 
passage is transcribed out of the Word on a piece of paper by a 
person who is falses, and the paper is thrown up towards heaven, 
instantly the same explosion is occasioned in the air between his 
eye and heaven, and the paper is torn to pieces and vanishes from 
the sight ; and the like happens, as I have often seen, if the paper 
is thrown into a corner of the room. Hence, it appeared to me, 
that those persons who are in falses of doctrine, have no communi- 
cation with heaven by means of the Word, but that their reading 
is dispersed in the way, and vanishes like gunpowder made up in 
paper, when it is set on fire and goes off in the air. The very 
reverse happens with those who are in truths of doctrine, by 
means of the Word, from the Lord ; their reading of the Word 
penetrates even into heaven, and is effective of conjunction with 
the angels therein."* 

The electrical phenomena so conspicuous in the Jewish history, 
and what Swedenborg here relates as having witnessed in the spirit- 
ual world, has ever, so far as I am aware, remained inexplicable 
to mankind. I think that I may safely say, and that too without 
egotism, that the philosophical principles set forth in this essay will 
furnish the key of solving every mystery connected with them. 
Neither can I conceive it possible to furnish a stronger argument in 
confirmation of the sanctity and divine authenticity of the Christ- 
ian Scriptures. Here scientific demonstration takes the place of 
theoretical speculation. We are not left to mere conjecture, but 
have a philosophical basis for every true Christian idea. How 
utterly futile, then, every infidel argument, and how pitiable every 
incredulous sneer. It is like the blind ignoring the principle of 
light, and the beauty of colors. Alike their condition totally dis- 
qualifies them from offering any opinion upon the subject. The 
physical unfitness in the one case is no greater than the moral in 
the other. Silence is the best indication of their discretion. 

Having thus considered man's relation to his Creator and the 
principles by which organic life are governed, we will now, as 
briefly as possible, turn our attention more particularly to the 
direct effect of sin upon the physical, moral and spiritual constitution. 

Moral disorders become a propagating cause of physical disorder 

— a deformity within is but the soul of deformity without. Vital 

organizations are continually attempting to produce what they 

cannot finish. The tender blossoms are smitten by the universal 

*True Christian Religion, p. 209. 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 159 

malady which sin has caused and fall unmatured to the ground ; 
or, if, perchance, they remain upon the parent stem, the loathsome 
maggot or poisonous canker soon accomplish the work of death, 
The earth displays vast deserts swept by the horrid simoon ; and 
swamps and morasses, like awful ulcers festering upon her bosom, 
and filled with disgusting and loathsome reptiles and poisonous in- 
sects ; and myriads of base vermin daily issue from these cess-pools 
of human wickedness. The lightnings flash from one end of heav- 
en to the other in convulsive attempts to light up our dark world, 
or to burn from the atmosphere the impure exhalations from an 
apostate race, while the thunders roll with awful majesty along 
the verge of heaven, uttering their sad moans over a sin-smitten 
world, or with an awful crash smite the earth, shattering the oak 
and despoiling it of its foliage, shivering rocks into fragments, and 
striking lifeless alike the grazing herd and man. The earth groans 
and rocks under the burthen of wickedness which has penetrated 
to her vitals, and earthquakes and volcanoes which submerge cities 
and carry ruin and desolation in their train, are but her convul- 
sive efforts for relief.* The roaring lion, the hungry wolf, the 
screeching owl, and the howling jackal — representatives of man's 
fallen condition — make the night hideous with their banquet of 
death. Mephetic vapors fill the air, and fogs and storms blur the 
sky, shutting out the light of purer orbs, and enclosing us within 
the sphere of our own transgression. 

But man presents even a worse spectacle : ugly with selfishness ; 
unsightly with deformity ; carbuncles thrown up by subterranean 
fires within ; the face ghastly with palsied nerves, and the limbs 
refusing the mandates of the will ; the muscles cramped or withered 
in form ; the blood sluggish and congesting the weaker parts ; the 
intestines exhausted with efforts to relieve the gluttonous and dissi- 
pated stomach; the glands and bones consumed with syphilitic 
virus ; the tissues rotting with scorbutic disease ; the skin festering 
corruption, or pallid by the pestiferous gasses from the awful 
sepulchre within. 

Such is man's physical aspect ; but as diseases in the body are 
correspondences of evil in the spirit, morally and socially, he is baser 
still. As are man's loves, so is his life. In his fallen state his 

* I believe it to be literally true, that without sin, the magnetic currents of the 
earth would so perfectly blend with the sphere of the sun, that there would be 
neither poisonous plants, ravenous beasts, venomous reptiles, tempests, tornadoes, 
lightning, earthquakes or volcanoes. The sun's rays are intercepted by the sin- 
turbidness of our atmosphere, destroying the equilibrium of the earth's currents, 
and causing all the physical disorders in nature. 



160 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

affections are unfolded from a radical centre of selfishness ; all his 
powers divorced from each other and without unity of action, — 
each clamoring in the wildest confusion for their own gratification ; 
and brewing in helpless and hapless discord ; — the appetites con- 
testing with reason ; the perceptions discolored ; the judgment 
perverted and flitting from speculation to speculation ; the pas- 
sions refusing to brook restraint ; the senses victorious over faith ; 
the thoughts huddling by in crowds of wild suggestions ; hatred 
blowing the over-heated fires of malice, destroying the moral per- 
ceptions and harnessing the intellect to its base rule ; envy skulk- 
ing in the dark corners of the soul, and jealousy hiding beneath its 
green-mantled pools, seeking to destroy whatever is superior to 
itself; the imagination haunted by ugly and disgustful shapes ; the 
conscience struggling, in the meantime, to establish order and har- 
mony amid this chaos of evil, until the final victory, when the 
destiny of the individual is decided either for heaven or hell. 

Such is the fearful contest within. Shall we gaze upon it in its 
social aspect without f Contemplate the present condition of society : 
the prominent dispositions and principles which actuate the majority 
of mankind; the boundless avaricious desires which prevail, and 
the base and deceitful means by which they are frequently grati- 
fied ; the jealousies which subsist between those of the same pro- 
fession or employment ; the bitterness and malice with which law 
suits are commenced and prosecuted ; the malevolence and cabal- 
ling which attend political contests ; political and religious discus- 
sions ; the unnatural contentions which arise between husbands 
and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters ; the brawl- 
ings, fightings and altercations, which so frequently occur in our 
streets, ale-houses and taverns ; and the thefts, robberies and 
murders which are daily committed ; the haughtiness and oppres- 
sion of the great and powerful, and the insubordination of the lower 
ranks of societies ; widows and orphans suffering injustice ; the 
virtuous persecuted and oppressed ; meritorious characters pining 
in poverty and indigence, while fools, profligates, and tyrants are riot- 
ing in wealth and abundance ; generous actions unrewarded and 
crimes unpunished ; the vilest of men raised to stations of dignity 
and honor; avarice, perfidy, hatred, treachery and malevolence 
reign triumphant ; while virtue, benevolence and every moral 
principle are trampled under foot ; conquerors carrying ruin and 
desolation in their train ; proud despots trampling on the rights of 
mankind ; cities turned into ruined heaps ; countries desolated to 
gratify selfish ambition ; nations dashing one against another, and 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 161 

empires wasted and destroyed ; fertile and populous provinces con- 
verted into deserts and over-spread with scattered ruins of villages 
and cities and the bleaching bones of human victims, to gratify a 
fiendish revenge ; the harvest committed to the flames, and the 
husbandman, mechanic, and artezan, with their families, constrained 
to feed on the dead bodies of their fellow-citizens ; men, without 
crime, doomed to perpetual bondage and compelled to bare their 
backs and receive the lash, swung by the hand of an angry and 
fiendish master — brooding in helpless ignorance; the chastity of their 
wives and daughters disregarded, or converted into merchandize ; 
separated amidst the most convulsive and bitter wailings, and 
driven in herds, as beasts, to the plain, and toil beneath the rays of 
a tropical sun to support in indolence a petty despot. 

Terrible as this picture is, these are only some of the milder 
forms of the reign of sin. Let us look upon another series, where 
all but the moral powers act in harmony to one end. Here we 
shall see the inauguration and complete reign of hell on earth. 
" Here we behold," says T. Dick, " an Alexander, with his 
numerous armies, driving the plowshare of destruction through 
the surrounding nations, levelling cities with the dust, and massa- 
cring their inoffensive inhabitants in order to gratify a mad 
ambition, and to be eulogized as a hero, — -here we behold a Xerxes, 
fired with pride and with the lust of dominion, leading forward an 
army of three millions of infatuated wretches to be slaughtered by 
the victorious and indignant Greeks. Here we behold an Alaric, 
with his barbarous hordes, ravaging the countries of Europe, over- 
turning the most splendid monuments of art, pillaging the metropo- 
lis of the Roman empire, and deluging its streets and houses with 
the blood of the slain. Here we behold a Tamerlane, overrunning 
Persia, India, and other regions of Asia, carrying slaughter and 
devastation in his train, and displaying his sportive cruelty, by 
pounding three or four thousand people at a time in large mortars, 
and building their bodies with bricks and mortar into a wall. On 
the one hand we behold six millions of Crusaders marching in 
wild confusion through the eastern part of Europe, devouring 
every thing before them, like an army of locusts, breathing de- 
struction to Jews and infidels, and massacring the inhabitants of 
western Asia with infernal fury. On the other hand, we behold 
the immense forces of Jenghiz Kan, ravaging the kingdom of 
eastern Asia, to an extent of fifteen millions of square miles, 
beheading one hundred thousand prisoners at once, convulsing the 



162 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

world with terror, and utterly exterminating from the earth four- 
teen millions of human beings. At one period, we behold the 
ambition and jealousy of Marius and Sylla, embroiling the Romans 
in all the horrors of a civil war, deluging the city of Rome for 
five days with the blood of her citizens, transfixing the heads of 
her senators with poles, and dragging their bodies to the Forum to 
be devoured by dogs. At another, we behold a Nero trampling 
on the laws of nature and society, plunging into the most abomi- 
nable debaucheries, practicing cruelties which fill the mind with 
horror, murdering his wife Octavia, and his mother Agrippina, 
insulting Heaven and mankind by offering up thanksgiving to the 
gods on the perpetration of these crimes, and setting fire to Rome, 
that he might amuse himself with the universal terror and despair 
which that calamity inspired. At one epoch, we behold the Goths 
and Vandals rushing like an overflowing torrent, from east to 
west, and from north to south, sweeping before them every vestige 
of civilization and art, butchering all within their reach, without 
distinction of age or sex, and marking their path with rapine, deso- 
lation and carnage. At another, we behold the emissaries of the 
Romish See slaughtering, without distinction or mercy, the mild 
and pious Albigenses, and transforming their peaceful abodes into 
scenes of universal consternation and horror, while the inquisition 
is torturing thousands of devoted victims, men of piety and virtue, 
and committing their bodies to the flames." 

" At one period of the world,* almost the whole earth appeared to 
be little else than one great field of battle, in which the human race 
seemed to be threatened with utter extermination. The Vandals, 
Huns, Sarmatians, Alans, and Suevi, were ravaging Gaul, Spain, 
Germany, and other parts of the Roman empire ; the Goths were 
plundering Rome, and laying waste the cities of Italy ; the Saxons 
and Angles were overrunning Britain, and overturning the gov- 
ernment of the Romans. The armies of Justinian, and of the 
Huns and Vandals, were desolating Africa, and butchering man- 
kind by millions. The whole forces of Scythia were rushing with 
irresistible impulse on the Roman empire, desolating the countries, 
and almost exterminating the inhabitants wherever they came. 
The Persian armies were pillaging Hierapolis, Aleppo, and the 
surrounding cities, and reducing them to ashes ; and were laying 
waste all Asia, from the Tigris to the Bosphorus. The Arabians 
under Mahomet and his successors, were extending their conquests 

* About the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries of the Christian Era. 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 163 

over Syria, Palestine, Persia, and India, on the east, and over 
Egypt, Barbary, Spain, and the islands of the Mediterranean, on 
the west ; cutting in pieces with their swords all the enemies of 
Islamism. In Europe, every kingdom was shattered to its centre ; 
in the Mohammedan empire of Asia the Calephs, Sultans, and 
Emirs were waging continual wars ; — new sovereignties were daily 
rising, and daily destroyed ; and Africa was rapidly depopulating, 
and verging towards desolation and barbarism." * 

Such are the terrific effects of a sinful ambition and selfish 
greed : but the works of malice complete the picture of human de- 
pravity. Prisoners of war are often treated with the most inde- 
scribable cruelty — their nails plucked out by the roots — their hair 
torn from their heads or their scalps taken off — the flesh torn from 
their fingers between the teeth of their enemies, and their hands 
and feet pounded between two stones — flayed alive, or red-hot 
irons applied to every part of their body, and their flesh thus man- 
gled, roasted and torn, is stripped off and devoured with fiendish 
greediness — tubes inserted into the gaping wounds and the blood 
sucked from the arteries as a sweet beverage — plucking out their 
eyes, cutting off their nose, ears, and tearing out their tongues — 
ripping open their abdomens and stripping out their intestines 
— burning them at the stake, or roasting them over a slow fire — 
throwing them into the dens of wild beasts, or causing them to be 
eaten alive by hungry dogs — thrown into cauldrons of boiling water 
or nailed to the cross. f Nursing women, lashed to the stake while 
their children lay before them, that their famishing cries might 
render more intolerable the sufferings of their unfortunate parents. 
These are some of the modes of torture which sin has invented to 
inflict an apostate humanity. 

That the Christian religion, notwithstanding any absurdities 
which may have become temporarily attached to it in consequence 
of human depravity, is the only divinely appointed means of main- 
taining the welfare of society, is abundantly evident to every well- 
balanced mind. Every attempt, either by individuals or nations, 
to substitute any other code of regulations than the Bible, has 

* Philosophy of a Future State, p. 37. 

t When Alexander entered the city of Tyre, after a siege of seven months, he 
gave orders to kill all the inhabitants, regardless of age or sex, except those who 
had fled to the temples, and then set fire to every part of the city. Eight thousand 
men were barbarously slaughtered ; and two thousand more remaining, after the 
soldiers had been glutted with slaughter, he fixed two thousand crosses along the 
sea-shore and carried them all to be crucified. — Rollin's And. History. 



164 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

proved a most disgraceful and appalling failure. Even with all 
the light and wisdom which it has shed upon mankind, they are 
wholly inadequate, without its immediate inspiration, to form any 
salutary regulations for the maintenance of social order. Nor can 
there he any social order without it ; for it covers the only ground 
upon which order can be maintained. Cut loose from this and we 
are at once in the fullest relation with all there is of anarchy and 
confusion. 

I know of no calamity — I can imagine none — so dreadful as a 
loss of reverence for the Holy Scriptures, or of faith in the infalla- 
bility' of their teachings. For such a loss cannot fail to be accom- 
panied or followed by a loss of reverence for God and his laws — a 
loss of pure religion and virtue — a loss of heavenly desires, heaven- 
ly hopes, heavenly aims, and heavenly graces — a loss of that right- 
eousness which alone can exalt an individual or a nation. Hence 
it is the constant endeavor of the Divine Providence to keep man 
in some degree of acknowledgment and reverence of the written 
Word ; for however unintelligible and blind that reverence may be, 
it is still better than none, since, while it remains, the Word is a Di- 
vine medium of consociation with the angels and of conjunction with 
the Lord. 

Let us glance at the effect of such a loss of confidence in the 
Scriptures, and the practical workings of infidelity upon the morals 
of society. This becomes the more important to us, as there are 
thousands who are seeking in every way to wrench the Bible from 
the hands of the rising generation, and to besmear it with the 
ridicule welling up from hearts saturated with every shameless 
abomination. France had its Voltaire, Buffom, Mirabeau, Con- 
dercet, Diderot, and Helvetius, men of depraved genius, through 
whose pens flowed the turbid streams of death, which spread its 
poison over all the nation, — a poison delectable to the depraved 
mind, — and the people in their bacchanalian revelry drank of it 
as if it emanated from the pure fountain of life. But America 
has its hundreds of waiters and speakers, though of less intel- 
lectual calibre, who discard Revelation, insult God, and ignore all 
moral distinction, travelling from place to place, demonstrating by 
argument their hostility to religion, and by their daily practice the 
wretched corruption of their lives. They constantly seek to 
either destroy or so subvert the religious principle in man as to 
break down the defence against universal disorder. They are the 
aiders and abettors in the inauguration of that mystery of iniquity 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 165 

which has worked from the beginning of the earth's history till 
now, an iniquity which captivates the senses and bewilders the 
reason . 

Revolting as these things are to the Christian mind, they have 
spread their baneful influence to a greater or less degree, into 
almost every avenue of society, and men and women of unques- 
tionable morals speak of and look upon this gathering tempest with 
as little apparent concern as if it had no mischievous effects, nor 
was any outrage against the laws of heaven. Our nation is labor- 
ing under the same influence, though as yet, perhaps, not to the 
same extent, which desolated the empires and republics of the past. 
Infidelity is proclaimed through the press and from the rostrum. 
Its fruits are fast ripening into national calamities. Behold its 
result in France. 

u The section of the Sans Culottes, declared at the bar of the 
Convention, November 10, 1793, that they would no longer have 
priests among them, and that they required the total suppression 
of all salaries paid to ministers of religious worship. The petition 
was followed by a numerous procession, which filed off in the hall, 
accompanied by national music. Surrounded by them, appeared a 
young woman* of the finest figure, arrayed in robes of liberty, and 
seated in a chair ornamented with leaves and festoons. She was 
placed opposite the President ; and Churmette, one of the mem- 
bers, said, " Fanaticism has abandoned the place of truth ; squint- 
eyed, it could not bear the brilliant light. The people of Paris 
have taken possession of the temple, which they have regenerated ; 
the Gothic arches which, till this day, resounded with lies, now 
echo with the accents of truth ; you see we have not taken for our 
festival inanimate idols, it is a chef oTozuvre of nature whom we 
have arrayed in the habit of liberty ; its sacred form has inflamed 
all hearts. The public has but one cry, 'No more altars, no more 
priests, no other God but the God of nature.' We, their magis- 
trates, we accompany them from the temple of truth to the temple 
of the laws, to celebrate a new liberty, and to request that the cide- 
vant church of Notre Dame be changed into one consecrated to reason 
and truth." This proposal, being converted into a motion, was 
immediately decreed ; and the Convention afterwards decided that 
the citizens of Paris, on this day, continued to deserve well of their 
country. The Goddess then seated herself by the side of the 
President, who gave her a fraternal kiss. The secretaries present- 

*Madam Desmoutines, who was afterwards guillotined. 
22 



166 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

ed themselves io share the same favor ; every one was eager to see 
the neiv divinity, whom so many salutations did not in the least dis- 
concert. During the ceremony, the orphans of the country, pupils 
of Bourdon, (one of the members,) sang a hymn to reason, com- 
posed by citizen Moline. The national music played Gosset's 
hymn to liberty. The Convention then mixed with" the people, to 
celebrate the feast of reason in the new temple. A grand festival 
was accordingly held in the church of Notre Dame, in honor of 
this deity. In the middle of the church was erected a monument, 
and on it a very plain temple, the facade of which bore the follow- 
ing inscription: u a la Philosophies The busts of : the most 
celebrated philosophers were placed before the gates of this temple. 
The torch of truth was in the summit of the mount, upon the altar 
of reason, spreading light. The Convention, and all the constitut- 
ed authorities, assisted at the ceremony. Two rows of young girls, 
dressed in white, each wearing a crown of oak leaves, crossed 
before the altar of reason, at the sound of republican music ; each 
of the girls inclined before the torch, and ascended the summit of 
the mount. Liberty then came out of the temple of philosophy, 
towards a throne of turf, to receive the homage of the republicans 
of both sexes, who sang a hymn in her praise, extending their arms 
at the same time towards her. Liberty ascended afterwards, to 
return to the temple, and in reentering it, she turned about, cast- 
ing a look of benevolence upon her friends ; when she got in, 
every one expressed with enthusiasm the sensations which the God- 
dess excited in them, by songs of joy ;■ and they swore never, never 
to cease to be faithful to her."* 

Such were the festivities and ceremonies which were prescribed 
for the installation of this new divinity. The profanation of every- 
thing sacred, the shameless folly and daring impiety, with which 
they were accompanied by these miscreants, are almost without a 
parallel in the annals of the world. Satiated to madness in 
debauchery, these worshippers of u liberty " and "reason" incon- 
sistently and inhumanly doomed to expire under the stroke of the 
guillotine, the lady whom they had so recently kissed and adored 
as the representative goddess of " truth," and to whom they had 
sworn perpetual fidelity. The shade which this apostate nation 
cast on the back-ground of the picture of human life, brings out in 
the most vivid contrast the beauty and excellency of the Christian 
*Dick on the Improvement of Society by the Diffusion of Knowledge, page 190. 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 167 

religion over all pretentious philosophy that has shaken offits alle- 
giance to God. 

During the space of five years, from 1791 to 1796, the public 
instruction of the young was totally set aside, and, of course, they 
were left to remain entirely ignorant of the facts and duties of 
religion, and of the duties they owed to God and to man. The con- 
sequence was, that in Paris alone, during the year ending 22nd Sep- 
tember, 1803, there were 490 men and 167 women who committed 
suicide ; 81 men and 69 women were murdered, of whom 55 men 
and 52 women were foreigners ; 641 divorces ; 155 murderers 
executed ; 1210 persons condemned to the galleys ; 1636 persons 
to hard labor, and 64 marked with hot irons ; 12,076 public women 
were registered ; large sums levied from these wretched creatures, 
who were made to pay from five to ten guineas each, monthly, 
according to their rank, beauty or fashion ; 1552 kept mistresses 
were noted down by the public, and 380 brothels licensed by the 
Prefect. Among the criminals executed, were 7 fathers for poison- 
ing their children ; 10 husbands for murdering their wives ; 6 
wives who had murdered their husbands ; and 15 children who had 
poisoned or otherwise murdered their parents. Such is the report 
presented by the Prefect of the Police to the Grand Judge. 

The state of marriage in this country since the revolution is like- 
wise the fertile source of immorality and crime. Marriage is little 
else than a state of legal concubinage, a mere temporary connec- 
tion, from which the parties can loose themselves when they please ; 
and women are a species of mercantile commodity. Illicit connec- 
tions, and illegitimate children, especially in Paris, are numerous 
beyond what is known in any other country. Even the Protest- 
ant clergy frequented the chase, the dance, and the billiard table. 
The Sabbath was totally disregarded, and business was prosecuted 
or suspended according to the tastes of the tradesman. Card play- 
ing, nine-pin alleys, horse-racing, gambling, dancing, theatres, re- 
views of the garrison, the parading of troops, Matts de Cocagne* 
feasting, rope-dancing, fire-works, balloon ascensions, profanity, 
carousing, intoxication, and prostitution, made up the programme 
of the Sabbath. 

A Paris journal, bearing date August 2, 1804, says : — u The 

danso-mania of both sexes seems rather to increase than to decrease 

* The Matts de Cocagne consists of two long poles, near the tops of which are 
suspended various articles of cookery, such as roast beef, fowls, &c. The poles 
were soaped and rendered slippery at the bottom, and the sport consists in the 
ludicrous failures of those who climb to reach the eatables. 



168 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

with the warm weather. Sixty balls were advertised for last Sun- 
day ; and for to-morrow sixty-nine are announced. Any person 
walking in the Elysian fields, or in the Boulevards, may be con- 
vinced that these temples of pleasure are not without worshippers. 
Besides these, in our own walks last Sunday, we counted no less 
than twenty-two gardens not advertised, where there was fiddling 
and dancing. Indeed, this pleasure is tempting, because it is very 
cheap. For a bottle of beer which costs 6 sous (3c?;) and 2 sous 
(Id ;) to the fiddler, a husband and wife with their children may 
amuse themselves from three o'clock in the afternoon till eleven 
o'clock at night. As this exercise both diverts the mind and 
strengthens the body, and as Sunday is the only day of the week 
which the most numerous class of people can dispose of, withdut 
injury to themselves or the state, government encourages, as much as 
possible, these innocent amusements on that day. In the garden of 
Chaumievre, on the Boulevard Neuf, we observed in the same 
quadrilles, last Sunday, four generations, the great grandsire danc- 
ing with his great, great granddaughter, and the great grand- 
mamma dancing with her great, great grandson. It was a satis- 
faction impossible to be expressed, to see persons of so many differ- 
ent ages, all enjoying the same pleasures for the present, not re- 
membering past misfortunes nor apprehending future ones. The 
grave seemed equally distant from the girl of ten years old, and 
from the great grandmamma of seventy years, and from the boy 
that had not seen three lustres, as from the great grandsire reach- 
ing nearly fourscore years. In another quadrille, were four lovers 
dancing with their mistresses. There, again, nothing was observed 
but an emulation who should enjoy the present moment. Not an 
idea of the past or of time to come, clouded their thoughts ; in a 
few words, they were perfectly happy. Let those tormented by 
avarice or ambition frequent those places on a Sunday, and they 
will be cured of their vile passions, if they are not incurable." 

These social corruptions speedily culminated in a reign of terror 
before which the world stood aghast, and which has no parallel in 
the pages of history. To sacrifice thousands of individuals, whose 
only fault was to think in a certain manner ; nay, whose opinions 
were frequently precisely the same as those of their persecutors, — 
to sacrifice them seemed a perfect natural thing, from the habit 
people had acquired of destroying one another. The facility with 
which they put others to death, or encountered death themselves, 
had become extraordinary, often jesting in the most ludicrous 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 169 

manner over their own and their comrades' destruction. In the 
field of battle, on the scaffold, thousands perished daily, and 
nobody was any longer shocked by it. In fact, one of the most 
extraordinary features of these terrible times, was the universal 
despotism which the better classes, both in Paris and the prov- 
inces, evinced to bury anxiety in the delirium of present enjoyment. 
The people who had escaped death went into the opera daily, with 
equal unconcern whether few or many had fallen during the day, 
or were indulging in the most promiscuous and lascivious debauch- 
eries. Inured to witnessing scenes of the worst crimes, they had 
ceased to look upon them with horror, and so lived in the perpetual 
excitement of carnage and bacchanalian revelry. Though the 
first murders committed in 1793, proceeded from a real irritation 
caused by danger, the people soon learned to slaughter, not from 
indignation, but from atrocious habit which they had contracted, 
and not unfrequently to gratify some personal feeling arising from 
jealousy, or from some fancied or real injury. A community 
accustomed to any species of wickedness, rapidly disposes itself for 
this horrid exhibition. Sin not only propagates itself, but destroys 
the moral perceptions, so that the most heinous crimes come to be 
looked upon with leniency or applause. 

In 1793, Joseph Lebon, who had been a priest, and who con- 
fessed that he would have killed his own father and mother, and 
who prided himself in his apostacy, libertinism, and cruelty, was 
sent as commissioner to Arras, where he perpetrated the most 
flagrant cruelties. Every day after his dinner, he presided, seated 
in a balcony, at the execution of his victims. By his order an 
orchestra was erected close to the guillotine. The scene resounded 
with wails and music. Mingling treachery and seduction with 
sanguinary oppression, Lebon turned the despotic powers with 
which he was invested, into the means of individual gratification. 
After having disgraced the wife of a nobleman, who yielded to his 
embraces in order to save her husband's life, he put the man to death 
before the eyes of his devoted consort. Children whom he had 
corrupted, were compelled by him to become spies on their parents ; 
and so infectious did the cruel example become, that the favorite 
amusement of this little band was putting to death birds and small 
animals, with little guillotines made for their use. In the city of 
Arras alone, over two thousand persons were beheaded. In the 
year 1795, Lebon was justly condemned to death as a Fourierist, 
being at the time of his execution thirty years of age. At Toulon 



170 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

several thousand citizens, of every age and sex, perished in a few- 
weeks by the sword or -guillotine ; two hundred were daily 
beheaded for a considerable time, and twelve thousand laborers were 
hired to demolish the city. 

In short, in all the principal cities of France, terror reigned as 
absolutely as in Paris. In 1793, Jean B. Carrier was sent to 
Nantes to punish La Vendee, in that town. Carrier, still a young 
man, was one of those inferior and violent spirits, who, in the 
excitement of civil wars, become monsters of cruelty and extrava- 
gance. Immediately after his arrival at Nantes he declared that, 
notwithstanding the promise made to the Vendeans who should lay 
down their arms, no quarter ought to be given them, but thev 
must all be put to death. The constituted authorities having hinted 

at the necessity of keeping faith with the rebels, u You are j 

f ," said Carrier to them, u you don't understand your trade ; 

I will send you all to the guillotine ;" and he began by causing the 
wretched creatures who surrendered, to be mowed down by 
musketry and grape shot, in parties of one and two hundred. He 
appeared at the popular society, sword in hand, abusive language 
pouring from his lips, and always threatening with the guillotine. 
It was not long before he took a dislike to that society, and caused 
it to be dissolved. He intimidated the authorities to such a degree 
that they durst no longer appear before him. One day, when they 
came to consult with him on the subject of provisions, he replied to 
the municipal officers that it was no affair of his ; that he had no 
time to attend to their fooleries ; and that the first blackguard who 
talked to him about provisions should have his head struck off. 
This frantic wretch imagined that he had no other mission than to 
slaughter. 

This human monster resolved to punish at one and the same 
time, the Vendean rebels and the federalists of Nantes, who had 
attempted a movement in favor of the Girondins, after the siege of 
their city. The unfortunate people who had escaped the disaster 
of Mans and Savenai were daily arriving in crowds, driven by the 
armies which pressed them closely on all sides. Carrier ordered 
them to be confined in the prisons of Nantes, and had thus collected 
nearly ten thousand. He had then formed a band of murderers, 
who scoured the adjacent country, stopped the Nantese females, 
and added rapine to cruelty. Carrier had at first instituted a revo- 
lutionary commission for trying the Vendeans and the Nanteans. 
He caused the Vendeans to be shot, and the Nanteans suspected 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. ' 171 

of federalism or royalism to be guillotined. He soon found this 
formality too tedious, and the expedient of shooting attended with 
inconveniences. This mode of execution was not only slow, but 
it became troublesome to bury the bodies. They were frequently 
left on the scene of carnage, and infected the air to such a degree 
as to produce an epidemic disease in the town. The Loire, which 
runs through Nantes, suggested a horrible idea to Carrier, namely, 
to rid himself of the prisoners by drowning them in that river. 
He made a first trial, loaded a barge with ninety priests, upon 
pretext of transporting them to some other place, and ordered it to 
be sunk when at some distance from the city. Having devised 
this expedient, he resolved to employ it on a large scale. He no 
longer employed the mock formality of sending the prisoners before 
a commission : he ordered them to be taken in the night out of 
the prison in parties of one or two hundreds, and put into boats, 
and carried to small vessels prepared for this horrible purpose. 
The miserable victims were thrown into the hold ; the hatches 
were nailed down ; the avenues to the deck were closed with 
planks, after which the executioners got into the boats, and carpen- 
ters cut holes in the sides of the vessels and sunk them. Nearly 
five thousand persons, without regard to age or sex, were destroyed 
by this fiendish mode of execution. The Loire was soon covered 
with dead bodies. Birds of prey flocked to the banks of the river, 
and gorged themselves with human flesh. Ships, in weighing 
anchor, frequently raised boats filled with drowned persons. As a 
legitimate consequence of these horrors, infectious diseases seized 
upon the living, and became a desolating and retributive scourge. 
In this disastrous situation, Carrier, still thirsting for cruelty, for- 
bade the slightest emotion of pity, seized by the collar and 
threatened with his sword those who came to speak with him, and 
caused bills to be posted, stating that whoever presumed to solicit on 
behalf of any prisoner in confinement, should himself be thrown 
into prison. 

Madame de Jourdaine was taken to the river to be drowned 
with her two daughters. A soldier wished to save the youngest, 
who was very beautiful ; but she, determined to share her mother's 
fate, threw herself into the water. The unfortunate girl, falling 
on dead bodies, did not sink ; she cried out, " Oh, push me in, I 
have not water enough ! " and perished. Women big with child ; 
infants, eight, nine, and ten years of age, were thrown together 
into the stream, on the sides of which men, armed with sabres, 



17 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

were placed to cut off their heads if the waves should throw them 
undrowned on the shore. On one occasion, by orders of Carrier, 
twenty-three of the royalists, on another, twenty-four, were guil- 
lotined together without trial. The executioner remonstrated, but 
in vain. Among them were many children of seven or eight 
vears of age, and seven women. The executioner, accustomed as 
he was to scenes of blood and cruelty, suffered such intense 
remorse from the crimes which he was compelled to perpetrate, that 
he died in two or three days afterwards. So great was the multi- 
tude of captives who were brought in on all sides, the executioners 
declared themselves exhausted with fatigue, and a new. method of 
execution was devised. Two persons of different sexes, generally 
an'old man and an old woman, bereft of every species of dress, were 
bound together and thrown into the river. Six hundred children 
perished by that inhuman species of death ; and such were the 
quantity of corpses accumulated in the Loire, that the water be- 
come almost a pool of the most loathsome corruption. The scenes 
in the prisons which preceded these executions exceeded all that 
romance had figured of the terrible. In one night, three hundred 
children were led out and thrown into the river. To all the repre- 
sentations of the citizens in favor of these innocent victims, Carrier 
only replied, " They are all vipers, let them be stifled." Three 
hundred young women of Nantes were drowned by him at once ; 
so far from having had any share in the political discussion, they 
were of the unfortunate class who live by the pleasures of others. 
On one other occasion, four hundred children of both sexes, the 
eldest of whom was not fourteen years old, were led out to the 
same spot to be shot. The littleness of their stature caused most 
of the bullets at the first discharge to fly over their heads ; they 
broke their bonds, rushed into the ranks of the executioners, clung 
around their knees, and sought for mercy. But nothing could 
soften the assassins. They put them to death, even when lying 
at their feet. It is difficult to conceive of the terrific agony which 
the youthful mind, not yet having matured to any degree of man- 
ly courage, must suffer in view of the certainty of such an impend- 
ing doom. Emotion without fortitude or rationality, a tenacity to 
life, with an imagination ever ready to draw the fairest pictures of 
the scenes of earth, and no definite conceptions of the future state 
of bliss which awaits them, there is nothing to modify the terms 
of death brought to them in so frightful a form. Scott says " This 
Carrier might have summoned hell to match his cruelty without a 



SIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 173 

demon venturing to answer his challenge." Fifteen thousand per- 
sons perished at Nantes in his administration under the hands of the 
executioner or of disease in prison in one month. The total num- 
ber of victims of the Reign of Terror in that town alone, exceeded 
thirty thousand. 

If the principles set forth in this essay be well founded, no one 
who has any just conception of the relation between cause and 
effect, can well fail to see that such a total disregard of the Divine 
precepts, would necessarily bring upon the nation such calamities 
as accrue from a withdrawal of Divine protection. God does not 
force His blessings upon mankind, but leaves the human will free 
to refuse or accept of His proffered mercies ; at the same time 
assuring us that he that scorneth alone must bear it. France took 
upon herself the fearful responsibility of ignoring God and the 
Bible, and of accepting of human reason, already subordinated to 
the baser passions, as her guide, her divinity ; and the pages of 
history no where furnishes a more striking example of the fact, 
that " where the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn," and 
" that when they are multiplied, transgression increaseth : but the 
righteous shall see them fall."* Stripped of virtue and of God, she 
was deprived of every principle of protection ; and her giddy and 
irreverent hilarity was but the mania of death. She sowed to the 
wind and reaped the whirlwind ; and generations yet unborn will 
suffer from her past indiscretions. She foolishly believed that 
she had transcended the wisdom of her forefathers in exact degree 
as she receded from the true light. Lust took the place of love, 
profanations of piety, confusion of order, and death of life. 

Let the infidel who would denounce the Christian religion, read 
this history of the Reign of Terror, and tremble before high 
heaven when he would impiously speak of God and His Holy 
Word. 

*Prov. 29:2-16. 
23 



CHAPTER V. 

CHARITY: ITS NATURE AND OFFICE. 

Charity I shall define as an internal affection of the soul, pro- 
ceeding from the Lord Jesus Christ as its proper fountain, and 
which ever prompts man to do good and to act uprightly from a 
pure love of goodness and uprightness, without any regard to 
reward or recompense, as it contains its own reward within itself ; 
hence, it is actually the first principle or constituent of the church 
in the individual, and as such ignores all amalgamation with evil. 
By acting from charity we act from a religious motive ; by which 
I mean that we discharge any given duty because God requires it 
at our hand, and because it is right in the nature' of things ; hence 
essential to the greatest good of all. The perfect law of charity is 
this : u Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye 
even so unto them ; for this is the law and the prophets."* This 
does not necessarily imply gratifying the wants of an individual, 
but in acting towards him in reference to his highest good. His 
appetites may be so perverted as to want what it would be a per- 
fect outrage against charity, to give. It is therefore no less an 
act of charity to withhold from every morbid desire, and from every 
unworthy person, than to bestow upon the virtuous needy. To 
increase the amount of human happiness should be our aim, and 
this can be done only as we strengthen and encourage the right, 
and prevent whatever may prove mischievous to the well being of 
society. 

Many persons have foolishly supposed that charity consists in 
giving to every poor person, and relieving every one that happens 
to be indigent, without stopping to inquire whether their character 
be good or bad, for they affirm that such inquiry is needless, since 
God regards only the alms and the relief that are given. Nq mis- 

*Matt. 7 : 12. 



CHARITY: ITS NATURE AND OFFICE. 175 

take can be greater ; for such alms may profe no little injury both 
to him who receives it, and through him, to others, — become the 
means of strengthening and encouraging him in the wrong, in 
intemperance, in indolence, or any other wicked course of life. 
The first duty of every individual is to become a useful member of 
society ; and whatever in any way tends to prevent this end is a 
violation of the principle of charity. No person has a right to 
encourage another in such habits of life as are detrimental to indi- 
vidual and social interest. The greatest service we can render 
another, is to enforce upon him the necessity of making himself 
useful to himself and to the world. Whoever bestows upon another, 
without any reference to the character of the individual, or the use 
that may be made of the alms, is far more liable to do an injury 
than a benefit ; for it is more frequently that the wicked are assisted 
in their disposition to do wickedly ; hence, the kindness they 
receive becomes the means by which they injure others ; so that 
such bestowers are ultimately the cause of an injury to society. 

On the 21st of July, 1861, at the close of the battle at Bull 
Run, Virginia, one of the Federal troops saw a Confederate soldier 
lying wounded and exhausted ; he carried him to a safe retreat, 
administered to his needs until consciousness^ was restored, where- 
upon the wounded soldier drew his pistol and killed his benefactor. 
The aid rendered, though well intended, was illy bestowed ; and 
the unfortunate man paid the penalty by the forfeiture of his life. 
The natural impulses of the Federal soldier prompted him to 
action, without ever stopping to inquire whether he was rendering 
service to the public good, or whether he was restoring to life a 
wretch who would seek to destroy the life of others and the nation. 
True, this is an extreme case, but it forcibly illustrates the prin- 
ciple here under consideration. 

Justice is indispensable to the maintenance of social order ; and 
a generosity which in any way tends to encourage any immoral 
habits, such as pride, indolence, or dissipation, is not charity, but 
a moral weakness which is unjust and acts against the public good. 
Such a gift does not come from an uncompromising integrity ; but 
from an impulse acting in direct opposition to rationality. Multi- 
tudes, if not the most of people, have mistaken mere generosity for 
charity — a mistake which has worked no little mischief in society. 
Charity is a divine principle which is inseparably wedded to jus- 
tice ; but generosity or liberality is merely a human impulse, which 
possesses no saving properties, though it may be one of the Christ- 



176 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

ian graces, or an auxiliary to salvation, when exercised from 
religious considerations. But real charity being a Christian prin- 
ciple, a man can never attain to it only as he puts away his evil 
from him as sins against God, for our Lord assures us that : " A 
corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit."* Like the Scribes 
and Pharisees, he may make clean the outside .of the cup and the 
platter, while within, it is full of extortion and excess. It was said 
of the pirate Gibbs that he possessed a most liberal disposition ; but 
no one would think of attributing to him anything like a Christian 
charity. No man can do good, which is really and in its own 
nature good, except from the Lord ; for whatever is done from any 
other principle is done from the self-hood, which is only evil. The 
principle by which a good can be accomplished, can come only from 
the Lord ; but which may operate through the individual as the 
agent to accomplish the desired end. This view is abundantly 
sustained by our Lord himself: " Abide in me, and I in you : as 
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, 
so neither can ye, except ye abide in me, and I in you ; for with- 
out me ye can do nothing."! And again : " A man can receive 
nothing, except it be given him from heaven". J 

There is also much danger of doing acts of charity from the 
stimulus of a hope of reward, which hope deprives the act of every 
saving quality by converting it into one of pure selfishness. We 
must love to do good for goodness' sake, not that we may be bene- 
fitted in turn, or that our vanity may be flattered by the applause 
of the world. The only return we have a right to expect from 
any charitable act, is that which grows out of the state or condition 
which induces the act. But if the act springs from motives of 
worldly ambition, there is no interior condition which can effect 
any salutary results to the doer, so that he deprives himself of the 
blessing which he might otherwise receive. 

The morbid sympathy which is so frequently mistaken for 
charity, has, to a large degree, grown out of an enfeebled con- 
science, which fails to distinguish between virtuous and vicious 
causes of destitution and suffering. The maintenance of the 
right and the discouraging of wrong, is the first fundamental 
principle of all true Christian charity. Whatever acts are not 
based upon this rule, whether they be in public sympathy, the be- 
stowment of gifts, or the withholding of condign punishment, is a 
public injury, and sanctioned by no divine authority. So far as 

* Matt. 7 : 18. t John 15 : 4-5. J John 3 : 27. 



CHARITY: ITS NATURE AND OFFICE. 177 

we fail to discourage the wrong by reproof, or in manifesting anv 
undue sympathy for the wrong-doer, we become instrumental in 
lowering the moral standard of public opinion, and of removing 
the strongest restraint to vicious habits. Human nature is such 
that it will practice whatever evil does not meet with popular 
condemnation. A promiscuous commerce of the sexes becomes 
generally practiced in those countries and societies where no loss 
of character attends it. The courtezans of Greece were held in 
the highest esteem, and at their death were buried with great 
pomp and ceremony, and the fairest maidens in the higher ranks 
decorated themselves in the most expensive manner, to secure the 
greatest devotion to their charms. The nation was stripped of 
every principle of virtue, and with it, every principle of divine 
protection. The Spartans had no severe condemnation for theft, 
and the greatest shrewdness and cunning were soon developed in 
the perpetration of this vice ; and finally it grew into such popular 
favor, that it was not unfrequently rewarded instead of punished. 

The sickly sentimentalism into which the public feeling has 
incautiously grown, in looking with too much pity and forbear- 
ance upon the perpetration of almost every species of vice, has 
proved a serious mischief to society. In many instances it has 
repealed the penalty justly due the offence, and men commit exten- 
sive thefts, by deception and fraud, against which, practically, there 
is no penal regulation ; live in luxury upon their ill-gotten gain, and 
are applauded for their shrewdness. The same spirit governs the 
present age which governed the Spartans, having only changed 
its mode of operation. I am not arguing for any unwarrantable 
severity in our penal codes, or cruelty in corporeal punishments ; 
but for that high-toned morality in the public sentiment which 
will pour its indignation down upon the culprit in such just con- 
demnation, that he will be compelled to reform, or remain a 
rejected and despised outcast of society. The fault of community 
is two-fold : first, on the one hand, it is by far too lenient towards 
those who are the perpetrators of one class of wickedness, such 
as slandering, lying, deception, fraud, perjury, and a willful refusal 
to discharge honest debts, &c, all of which have grown into such 
daily practice as to be scarcely looked upon as belonging to the 
category of crimes: second, on the other, it is too unforgiving, 
especially in reference to those acts which have grown out of 
impulsive natures, and the indiscretion of youth, even where 
hearty repentance and reform have taken place. This not unfre- 



178 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

quently prevents the discontinuance of a wicked course of life, and 
perpetuates a condition which a virtuous society should ever seek 
to avoid. 

Some weak-minded, but well-meaning persons, observing this, 
have indiscreetly taken themselves t6 the opposite extreme, and by 
association, have encouraged the Magdalenes, who have neither 
repented of nor forsaken their wickedness, hoping by this means to 
effect their reformation. But so far from having the desired effect, 
it has encouraged them and others in a wanton course of life, and 
at the same time, weakened the barriers to vice by lowering the 
standard of public virtue. The more recent forms of infidelity, 
which ignore not only the Christian Scriptures, but the marriage 
institution, and with these, all distinction between vice and virtue, 
have done much to destroy the moral order of society. The public 
has extended towards them such undue leniency as to encourage 
them in their horrid depravities, so that they have become the open 
corruptors of the youth and the abettors in every species of iniquity. 

That moral^tone which makes no compromise with sin, in what- 
ever form it may present itself, is terribly wanting. Justice in this, 
as in other departments, has fallen in the streets. And that charity 
which " covers a multitude of sins," by fostering and shielding 
alone the right, has become transformed into a whited sepulchre, 
which embosoms the rottenness within. Charity, in a religious 
sense, is nearly synonymous with love ; or, more properly speaking, 
it may justly be termed the activity of love. It seems to be in this 
sense that the apostle recognizes it as greater than faith or hope, 
for it is a work proceeding from a principle of love, which principle 
is God, for "God is Love." All who have experienced the 
emotions of Love, either towards God or the neighbor, will 
acknowledge the truth of Paul's statement that, u Charity suffereth 
long, and is kind ; charity envieth not ; charity vaunteth not itself, 
is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her 
own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil ; rejoiceth not in 
iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all things, believeth all 
things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never 
faileth."* This is the very nature of love, and is never satisfied 
until the person loved is redeemed from his evils. And the whole 
operations of the Creator with his children is to effect this object, 
as is clearly manifest throughout the Bible ; and those who cannot 
be brought into a love of virtue, and thus become a law unto them- 

* 1 Cor. 13 : 4-7. 



CHARITY: ITS NATURE AND OFFICE. 179 

selves, He restrains by external conditions. Love does this for 
their good, and so becomes a work of charity. Whatever does not 
seek to accomplish this end cannot be said to be love ; it may be a 
fellow-feeling or a passional impulse, such as one animal has for 
another in distress, regardless of the causes which produced it. 
But love seeks to effect the redemption of man from all his evils ; 
and the Word enforces this duty in the following manner : " Thou 
shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart : thou shalt in any (or 
every) wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him."* 
" Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell 
him his fault between thee and him alone. "f " Take heed to your- 
selves : If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him ; and if he 
repent forgive him. "J " Wherefore, rebuke them sharply, that 
they may be sound in the faith. "§ "Preach the word; be instant 
in season, out of season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long- 
suffering and doctrine." || Nothing can be more clearly our duty 
than to reprove sin in any and every form ; and if the sinner will 
not forsake his evils, it is no less imperative upon us to turn from 
them and withdraw all sympathy and association. Otherwise, we 
become partakers of his sins by the strength and encouragement 
we afford him, and this is "taking the children'' s bread and casting 
it to dogs," which w T e are forbidden to do. " Depart, I pray you, 
from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, 
lest ye be consumed in all their sins."** u Have no fellowship with 
the works of darkness, but rather reprove them"W " I have written 
unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a 
fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or 
an extortioner ; with such an one no not to eat"$"\. u I would not 
that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup 
of the Lord and the cup of devils : ye cannot be partakers of the 
Lord's table, and of the table of devils. "§§ " Thou shalt make no 
covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them : neither shalt thou 
make marriage with them ; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto 
his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son." || || ** Be ye 
not unequally yoked together with unbelievers : for, what fellow- 
ship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what com- 
munion hath light with darkness. "^[ " Now we command you, 
brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw 

*Lev. 19 : 17. t Matt. 18 : 15. t Luke 17 : 3. § Titus 1 : 13. || 2 Tim. 4 : 2. 
** Numb. 16 : 26. tt Eph. 5 : 11. ft 1 Cor. 5 : 11. H 1 Cor. 10 : 20, 21. |||| Deut. 
7:2,3. 12 Cor. 6:14. 



180 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after 
the tradition which he received of us."* " And if any man obey not 
our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with 
him, that he may be ashamed '."f We have no right to love any- 
thing but what is good, neither offer any encouragement to evil. 

The wars and contests of the Israelites with the heathen nations 
were clearly typical, not only of the struggles in overcoming the 
evils within ourselves, but also, the duty devolving upon us in 
behalf of others. In every move which these representative peo- 
ple made in their forty years wanderings, we have a practical lesson 
that God makes no compromise with sin. From the. time that 
He undertook to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt by the 
hand of Moses, to the time of their final deliverance, it was a series 
of most terrible disasters to all who attempted to interfere with the 
divine plans. These disasters were placed in such close proximity 
to their cause, as to preclude the possibility of misunderstanding 
the severity of the Lord's punishment of all unrighteousness. They 
were illustrations of principles which are universal. 

The great requirement of the present age is, a class of practical, 
evangelical Christians, whose thundering tones of denunciation 
against wickedness in every form shall be heard throughout the 
length and breadth of the land, and whose lives at the same time 
shall be in keeping with the Holy Word. A society of such, in 
each city and hamlet would become a center, around which would 
gather all w T ho are seeking to live in harmony with our Lord's 
teaching. But from the present condition of ecclesiastical socie- 
ties, the members of which are so involved in things of time and 
sense, that the things of heaven are secondary to those of earth, 
we have but little to hope. Indispensable as they are for the main- 
tenance of even the present degree of moral order, there is not that 
abstinence from every appearance of evil and that devotional inter- 
est in the great cause of their Master which should ever charac- 
terize the Christian. Even those who do not practice any out- 
ward form of evil, are too heedless of the treachery, deception, 
fraud and other forms of wickedness by which they are surrounded. 
And so far as they make the affairs of this world paramount to 
those of the next, they give a tacit assent to the infidel idea that 
Christianity has nothing better to offer than the promptings of the 
sensual appetites. Others, who in spirit, hunger and thirst after 
righteousness, but ignorant of the influence of association, promis- 
*2Thes. 3:6. t2Thes, 3:14. 



CHARITY: ITS NATURE AND OFFICE. 181 

cuously mingle with those whose interior state is in relation with 
almost every species of depravity, and become so magnetized by 
their spheres, that they look with leniency upon such wickedness 
as angels would tremble to behold. 

Two bodies of unequal temperature, placed in contact, recipro- 
cally impart and receive the conditions of each other, until an 
equilibrium is established between them — a law which is no less 
operative in the moral than in the physical world. So far as an indi- 
vidual is morally positive to the influence of wickedness and looks 
to the Lord for protection, he is divinely shielded from the ingress 
of evil. But this is rarely the case, for the tendency of all mag- 
netic spheres flowing from a corrupt source, is to break down the 
barriers to vice by stimulating the impulses on the one hand, and 
weakening the moral perceptions on the other, which renders the 
individual self-reliant, and causes him to believe that he is the 
most safe, when in reality he is in the most danger. The influence 
of sin is invariably deceptive, and works by allurements — it pro- 
mises what it never gives. Did it portray to its victim the full 
consequences of his act, it could never find access into his mind, 
for when truly seen it is a deformity hated by all. 

But it is not for ourselves alone that we should avoid the asso- 
ciations of the morally impure, and this for two reasons. First, by 
imparting to them moral qualities which they have no disposition 
to use to their own improvement, they transmuted these qualities 
into encouragement and strength to do evil ; thus, like the inebriate, 
who uses to his own destruction the beverage designed for his good, 
they absorb elements from the better conditions of society, which, 
when incorporated into their own constitutions, becomes an ener- 
gizing force to still greater evils. It is morally wrong to cast pearls 
before swine. Second, we withhold countenance and give an open 
rebuke to vice; which rebuke usually exerts a more powerful 
restraint than penal regulations. 

" It is no breach of Christian charity," says Dr. Paley, " to with- 
draw our company or civility when the same tends to discounte- 
nance any vicious practice. This is one branch of that extra-judi- 
cial discipline, which supplies the defects and the remissness of 
law. The use of this association against vice is experienced in one 
remarkable instance, and might be extended with good effect to 
others. The confederacy amongst women of character, to exclude 
from their society kept mistresses and prostitutes, contributes more 
perhaps to discourage that condition of life, and prevent greater 



182 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

numbers from entering into it, than all the considerations of pru- 
dence and religion put together."* If it be true, as stated in the 
commencement of this essay, that the principle province of Christ- 
ian charity consists in promoting the happiness of others, in refer- 
ence to the greatest good of all, it is then evident that these excom- 
munications should be extended into every relation of life, secular 
as well as social. As society now exists, the social restraint held 
over women is ten-fold greater than that over men ; for a woman 
having once fallen is seldom reinstated into public confidence ; 
whereas, a man may continue in a wanton course, and so long as 
he fulfills other duties his company is courted, even by those wo- 
men who would scorn to speak to one of their own sex who is in a 
far less depraved condition. While she becomes an outcast, he, 
though the positive and seducing party, finds that his greater 
crime goes unpunished so far as any social ban being put upon 
him. In this example, the restraint upon each sex is in proportion 
to the punishment enforced by society. As the custom now is, 
the advantage is chiefly on the side of woman, for she is held in 
check and prevented from running into such excesses as would 
destroy both soul and body, as is too often the case with those upon 
whom this restraint has ceased to operate. 

It is claimed by moralists that the sense of virtue is much 
stronger in woman than in man ; but it may be well questioned, 
whether this superiority has not grown out of the greater restraint 
put upon her, and which enforces upon her attention the impor- 
tance of heeding the requirements of social customs. This ques- 
tion can be settled only by placing the sexes, for successive 
generations, on a plane of perfect equality, holding each equally 
amenable to society for any violation of the laws of chastity. 
Woman's impulses are usually not less strong than man's ; but so 
forcibly does she feel the importance of maintaining her integrity, 
that she masters their expression, and at the same time offers a 
rebuke to him whom she loves, and her whole soul goes out to af- 
ford pleasure. As the Divine Being prohibits this vice, it is rational 
to conclude that there is no partiality shown to one sex over the 
other ; and woman's greater sense of virtue, appears to me to be 
due, not to a sickly forbearance, but to a more discrete exercise of 
Christian charity towards her. 

How far, and in what manner, this may be extended in safety to 
those already fallen, is a problem yet to be settled by the experi- 
* Principles of Philosophy, p. 181. 



CHARITY: ITS NATURE AND OFFICE. 183 

ence of mankind. Great caution is here necessary ; for while we 
yield forbearance on the one hand, we weaken the restraints on 
the other. But for women of character to admit the wanton into 
their associations, before they have evidence of a hearty repent- 
ance of, and a turning from, their wicked course of life, cannot fail 
to afford encouragement to the. viciouslv disposed, and prove dis- 
astrous to social interest. And were the same judicious course 
pursued in reference to our own sex, moral purity would be im- 
measurably improved. The injunction of the apostle John is : 
" If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive 
him not into your house, neither bid him God speed ; for he that 
biddeth him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds." * 

But there are many naturally pure minded young women, of 
high ambition and a strong sense of virtue, who, in an unguarded 
moment, yield their integrity to their seducer, not from any actual 
want of virtue, but in consequence of being mentally overpowered 
by a stronger psychological force. Possessing, as many do, a sen- 
sitive and impressible nature, and unacquainted with the depravity 
of man, they fall victims to a misdirected confidence. Many of 
the finest specimens of woman have thus stranded at the very 
outset of life, upon those shoals which the depravity of man have 
thrown in her way. Aaron Burr boasted that no woman could 
withstand the influence he was capable of bringing to bear upon 
her. Possessing an immense amative power, an unusually strong 
psychological sphere, and a will unsubdued in himself, gave him an 
influence over the female mind paramount to any conscientious 
scruples she might possess, so that his victims were mentally com- 
pelled to respond to his evils more than their own. This is by no 
means a solitary case. I have known many others who possessed a 
like fiendish influence, such as have strewed their earthly pathway 
with their wretched victims. It is an unequal distribution of jus- 
tice, when such gross and habitual offenders go unpunished, 
while their more innocent victims are made perpetual outcasts 
from society. Much discretion is here required at the hands of a 
just and virtuous public. 

Charity, like Justice, its handmaid, extends its beneficence into 

every relation of life. The judge who administers justice for the 

# sake of equity, whether it be in punishing the guilty, or absolving 

the innocent, exercises the principles of charity ; for he consults 

the interest of his fellow citizens, and promotes the welfare of his 

* 2 John, 10-12. 



184 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

country. The king, the emperor, or the president, who enforces 
obedience to salutary laws, and maintains harmony and concord 
throughout his realm or province, by rewarding virtue and 
punishing vice, is engaged in a work of public charity. The priest 
who teaches truth, and spares not to lay bare the sins of his people, 
and stimulates to virtue, will receive the reward which is due to 
that which is greater than Faith or Hope. The people, in what- 
ever calling they may be, when they seek to do good and promote 
the interest of each other, are discharging the duties of Christian 
charity. Parents who properly discipline and educate their chil- 
dren, that they may become orderly and useful members of society ; 
and children who obey their parents from a love of order and 
fitness, are also discharging the duties of charitv. 

The common weal of a nation is made up of the good of its indi- 
vidual members ; and each adds to, or. subtracts from, the general 
stock, according to his moral state and practices. Each, therefore, 
either becomes a curse or blessing to the country he inhabits. The 
morals of a nation are the only basis of its happiness and prosperity. 
In the present age, the thief is the great giant enemy of mankind. 
I do not mean that low and comparatively unimportant class of 
thieves who commit their depredations by nightly prowling ; but that 
numerous class who maintain a fashionable exterior, sustained by 
the plunders and robberies from those who have had the indiscre- 
tion to repose any confidence in them. Like the anaconda, they 
embrace only to destroy. Feeding upon the luxuries of their 
thefts, they foster and pamper the public taste into the most 
depraved condition. They are the loathsome, but sleek worms, 
which eat into the vitals of public morals ; devastate all human 
confidence, so that the honest poor are prevented from obtaining 
the credit due them ; ravish the chastity of the wives and daughters 
of their trusting neighbors, and under false exteriors, daily prowl 
through the community, filching whatever is momentarily 
entrusted to their hands ; and like the Bohen Upas, poison all they 
touch. Municipal laws are powerless against them, for their con- 
federates are in the legislative halls and upon the judicial bench. 
Popular rebuke is unheeded, for their numbers have so lowered 
the standard of public morals that it only gasps a half approving 
smile at its destroyers. Thus weakened and crippled, the conscien- 1 
tious struggle on between poverty and the anathemas of heaven 
against all unrighteousness, cheated of their dues and frowned upon 
by their robbers, they patiently wait for the avenging hand of God. 



CHARITY: ITS NATURE AND OFFICE. _ 185 

" Ye are cursed with a curse : for ye have robbed me."* " Inas- 
much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, 
ye have done it unto me."f 

All this could be easily remedied, if the community could be 
induced to bring into activity the remaining vitality of its moral 
constitution and excommunicate every villain from all trust, con- 
fidence, and associations, until he should establish a character for 
integrity. Drive out all thieves from the fellowship of the honest, 
silence by a frowning indignation every debauchee', and picture 
their abominations to the gaze of the astonished multitude, so that 
shame shall crimson the cheek unknown to blush, and Venus, the 
goddess of purity, shall wave her magic wand over a world redeemed 
from much of its horrid wickedness. This is the work of a Christ- 
ian charity, and no " well done good and faithful servant" can 
greet our ears until we have faithfully discharged our duty. God 
has entrusted the elements of the redemption of society to the 
Christian church, and no hiding of the talents amid the rubbish of 
the evils of this age, will answer the requirements of the Master. 

The time has arrived for earnest action — action in the right ; and 
he who would be found faithful must enter the contest between truth 
and error, good and evil. The destinies of men are now decided in 
comparatively little time. The long continued epochs of prepara- 
tion, either for heaven or hell, are narrowed down from cycles to 
years. Nations achieve in a year the former work of centuries. 
Motion is accelerated as the world draws near its crisis. The 
contending armies between right and wrong are hurrying to their 
final battle. " Up, get ye out of this place ; for the Lord will destroy 
this city," is now the cry to all who would not compromise with 
evil. The surgings of God's judgments, like the tempest, are upon 
us. The events foreseen by Peter, are with us : " There shall be 
false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable 
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon 
themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their perni- 
cious ways ; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken 
of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make 
merchandize of you : whose judgment now for a long time lin- 
gereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. The Lord knoweth 
how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the un- 
just unto the day of judgment to be punished : but chiefly them 
that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise 

* Mai. 3:9. t Matt. 25:40. 



186 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

government. Presumptuous, self-willed, natural brute beasts, made 
to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of things they understand 
not ; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption : and shall 
receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it plea- 
sure to riot in the day-time. Spots they are, and blemishes, sport- 
ing themselves ivith their oivn deceivings while they feast with you. 
Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin ; being 
unstable souls : a heart they have exercised with covetous prac- 
tices ; cursed children ; which have forsaken the right way and 
gone astray. * * * * Knowing this first, that there shall 
come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and 
saying where is the promise of his coming ? for since the fathers 
fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of 
creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the 
word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out 
of the water and in the water : whereby the world that there was, 
being overflowed with water perished ; but the heavens and the 
earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved 
unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly 
men."* And John the Revelator heard the prophetic cry, " Say- 
ing, come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her 
sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have 
reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities."! 

If we would love our enemies, we must use all laudable means 
to restrain them in their mad career of wickedness. While we 
do good to those who would destroy us, we should at the same 
time remember that the worst evil we can inflict upon a bad man, 
is to let him have his own way, by passing his wickedness by unre- 
buked. Treason against justice and truth is a terrible blight upon 
the soul ; and they who do not exercise a restraining charity 
against it, are wanting in a faithful love toward their fellow-men, 
and in service to God, are, like the unfaithful steward, who allows 
his master's field to become mutilated, and finally destroyed by 
noxious weeds and poisonous plants. " To do justice and judg- 
ment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice." J " He that 
saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous ; him shall the people 
curse, nations shall abhor him : but to them that rebuke him shall 
be delight, and a good blessing shall come upon them." § 

From what has now been said, it will be seen that he who lives 
a moral life, from a desire of rendering obedience to God rather 
* 2 Peter 2-3 chaps, t Rev. 18 : 4-5. jProv. 21:3. § Prov. 24 : 24-25. 






CHARITY: ITS NATURE AND OFFICE. 187 

than from any considerations of a worldly approval, whoever sus- 
tains a principle of justice towards his neighbor, rendering unto him 
all his dues and reproving his evils, lives a life of charity which 
becomes the basis for the kingdom of heaven within him. And it is 
the only basis upon which the Lord can build His church. Neither 
is it possible for any principle of the church to have a foundation in 
the human constitution, only as it is founded upon a life of obedi- 
ence to the commandments. Hence, real charity consists in bearing 
good-will towards our neighbor, and in doing him good from a 
principle of justice, mingled with mercy, — it is one with a moral life 
sustained from spiritual motives. Charity fulfills all the contents of 
the commandments contained by the second table, and which pre- 
scribes man's duties, as is evident from the words of Paul : u Love 
one another; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 
For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery; Thou shalt not kill ; 
Thou shalt not steal ; Thou shalt not bear false witness ; Thou shalt 
not covet ; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly 
comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor ; therefore 
love is the fulfilling of the law."* 

Thus far in this essay, I have treated of charity in its most 
external 'bearings, — that which belongs to the outer court. But 
it has a still more spiritual and interior significance, a significance 
which holds the same relation to what has already been said, as 
does the fountain to the stream. 

Spiritually,. the first fundamental principle of charity is to con- 
fess and forsake our sins, and to yield ourselves, for the ends of 
use, wholly to the divine requirements. By this means we become 
receptive of orderly influences, which quicken us in every good 
word and work, and greatly enhance our usefulness to the world. 
If it be true, as shown in the " Laws of Connection," that our 
acts partake of the spiritual elements which produced them, it is 
evident that they become potent for good, only so far as they con- 
nect with those principles which are calculated to benefit mankind. 
Every act is really good or evil, according as it proceeds from a 
corresponding interior principle, for a bitter fountain cannot send 
forth sweet waters, neither can a good tree bear corrupt fruit. If 
religion has had its perfect work in the will, the fountain is pure 
and sends forth such healthful streams as are calculated to bless 
society ; but in proportion as the self-hood warps or hinders the 
* Romans 13 : 8-10. 



188 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

divine influence, the stream becomes turbid with the elements of 
death. 

Man has a two-fold will, one interior, the other exterior ; and 
as the former becomes purified through a resistance of evil, and 
enlightened by the Holy Spirit, the latter reflects this condition by 
a life radiant with uses. And though the exterior act performed 
by such an one, may be the same as that performed by an unregen- 
erated man, the principle by which it is governed, as widely differs 
from the other, as good from evil. Men not unfrequently do good 
acts which have no religious merit in them, from the fact that they 
are done from selfish motives. Politicians apparently take a deep 
interest in the welfare of the country, not so much however for 
ends of use, as to promote their own selfish interest. A dishonest 
man treats another with great friendship, kindness, and apparent 
love, that he may secure his confidence, and ultimately rob him. 
The rich often make generous donations to establish a character of 
liberality ; and at death, when they can have no longer any use for 
their wealth, give large sums to public institutions, that their name 
may ever after be identified with the gift. It will be seen that such 
acts, though good in themselves, attach no merit to the actor, inas- 
much as they are wholly disconnected from any Christian princi- 
ple, and therefore, can have no salutary effect upon the soul after 
death, for they adhere to the self-hood and not to religion. 

It is a prevailing opinion among the evangelical churches that a 
life of mere morality, however strict, cannot save a man after 
death. To me this opinion is well founded ; for a life of morality 
may be maintained from motives of selfish or civil- good without 
any reference to spiritual good. So long as this is the case, it is 
wholly external, and proceeds from the external will alone, having 
no connection with the interior, or religious principle which is 
good. And what is not good is evil. 

Two thieves may enter into copartnership to more effectually 
carry on their wickedness, and at the same time maintain a strict 
integrity towards each other. Worldly prudence requires this. 
Individuals, in an associated body of robbers, will often place them- 
selves in the most eminent peril and freely bestow their ill-gotten 
gain upon their companions in crime. Ambition requires this. So 
a man may live a moral life from no higher or more divine motive 
than that which actuates the thief or robber. But so far as he 
shuns sins because they are divinely prohibited and are injurious to 
society, and does good from a love to the Lord, he adjoins himself 



CHARITY: ITS NATURE AND OFFICE. 189 

to religion and his beneficent acts become godliness reduced to 
practice. He has no desire for ostentatious show, for the reward, 
like the actuating motive, is a divine one ; and the consciousness 
that he has faithfully discharged his duty is infinitely more satis- 
factory to him than the laudations of man. He chooses to regard 
the admonition : " Take heed that ye do not your alms before men 
to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father 
which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms do not 
sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues 
and in the streets, that they may have glory of men, verily I say 
unto you they have their reward. But when thou doest thy alms, 
let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth : that thine 
alms may be in secret ; and thy Father which seeth in secret him- 
self shall reward thee openly."* For the desire of laudation is a 
selfish rather than a divine ambition, and prevents the aspirant 
from reaping any spiritual benefit from his gift. Hence, whoever 
lives a moral life from merely selfish considerations, rather than mo- 
tives of religion, after death, when stripped of ail external appear- 
ance, he can exhibit nothing but the naked self-hood completely 
divorced from the Lord. " Cleanse first the inside of the cup 
and the platter," and the outside will be clean also ; for the purity 
or impurity of the motive is attached to every act we perform. 
Whatever is not done from a religious motive, however much 
benefit may accrue to others, is evil to him who does it. (I do not 
use the term religious in any sectarian sense but as a divine 
principle.) 

A man who refrains from evil, from motives of human prudence 
or worldly policy, more than from a love of the right, has no ration- 
al basis for a belief that he is in possession of those conditions 
which are essential to salvation. The interior loves, and not the 
outward acts, are the index of his spiritual state ; for that only 
enters into the spirit and becomes a part of it, which has first 
entered into the loves. It is from this principle : " That whosoever 
looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery 
with her already in his heart,"f because the desire or love attaches 
itself to the spirit, and it being an evil love, he has, in spirit, com- 
mitted an infernal act, which is laid to his charge, though the 
outward manifestation of that act never took place ; and therefore, 
had no accomplice in it only in his own thought. 

* Matt. 6 : 1—4. t Matt. 5 : 28. 



190 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

u Ye have heard that it was said hy them of old time, Thou shalt 
not kill ; and whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judg- 
ment : But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother 
without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment." Anger is vio- 
lence of passion predicated of an evil will", which can only arise from 
an infernal love, which is the very essence of murder in the soul ; for 
it is well known that in proportion to the degree or intensity of anger, 
is the desire to destroy the hated object. This hatred conjoins itself to 
the soul and makes the man a devil in spirit, though he may main- 
tain the strictest outward morality. It is like a fatal malady in the 
blood that has not excoriated the cuticle ; or, the melted lava in 
the bosom of the earth, that has not expended itself in volcanic 
eruptions. While in this condition he is forbidden to even approach 
the Lord with his offerings. " Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to 
the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against 
thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way ; first be 
reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."* 
The principle here involved is, that we approach the Lord that we 
may become the recipients of a divine influx ; and the law is, that it 
energizes the recipient in whatever state or condition he may be. 
If a divine influx flows into and through a corrupt man, it is inverted 
in his affections, and he becomes energized to commit evil. If 
influx from devils flows into a regenerated man, that influx is 
restored to its legitimate use and renders him potent for good. In 
this way devils are made to serve him. 

From what has now been said, it will be seen that charity lays 
at the foundation of all the Christian graces, and is the very esse 
of a Christian life. Without it, we are as a sounding brass and a 
tinkling cymbal, and all our generous deeds and morality, our 
preaching and praying, will avail nothing when we enter into 
the eternal world where the interior motive is laid bare to the 
gaze of heaven. 

" Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and 
have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling 
cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand 
all mysteries, and all knowledge ; and though I have all faith, so 
that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am noth- 
ing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and 
though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it 
* Matt. 5 : 23, 24. f 1 Cor. 13 : 1-3. 



CHARITY: ITS NATURE AND OFFICE. 191 

profiteth me nothing ; " f for charity is of the internal man, the 
uniting principle of the social, moral, and spiritual, and the medium 
of loving the Lord, and the neighbor. 

One consideration more and I will close the present chapter. 
True charity tends directly to unite those who exercise it, — it is 
the cohesive force between individuals, — uniting them to each 
other and collectively to God. If there is no obstruction placed 
between those who love one another, they will hasten to unite, 
to be truly consociated as brethren and sisters of one family, 
with hearts warming towards each other, as the apostles of old 
when it was said of them, " behold how they love one another; " 
and they will so cohere that they cannot be separated without first 
being separated from the Lord ; for it is love of and from Him that 
draws them together, and which is the band of their consociation 
as brethren. 

We are commanded to " Lay not up for ourselves treasures upon 
earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break 
through and steal ; but to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven 
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do 
not break through and steal. For where our hearts are, there 
will be our treasures also." It is not presumable that worldly 
knowledge and possessions are to be despised, for these are essen- 
tials incident to mundane existence ; but they aught to be raised 
beyond the reach of the cankering influence of self-love, or the 
grovelings of mere worldly ambition. It is only by imparting 
them that we truly receive them ; they are without life or use 
to us in the higher sense, until we give them to the neighbor. In 
this act we transform them from merely natural to spiritual treas- 
ures, which we may enjoy forever. Thus it is that it is more 
blessed to give than to receive ; for by giving we receive four-fold 
in this life, and in the next, life everlasting. This is the philoso- 
pher's stone, which changes the baser metals into immortal bril- 
liancy.- Whatever good is done to the neighbor, that good will 
forever remain in heaven ; enduring riches are laid up where no 
moth nor rust can corrupt, where no thief can break through and 
steal. The pearl of great price is thus bought with but a small 
sacrifice, — simply the crucifying of an unhallowed self-hood which 
yields no real pleasure. Who would not make this sacrifice for a 
life of immortal beatitude ? 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE MORAL LAW: ITS NATURE, REWARDS, AND PUNISHMENTS. 

Laws, in their most general signification, are the necessary rela- 
tions derived from the nature of things. In this sense all things 
have their laws ; the material elements, the brute creation and 
intelligent beings. The word law, however, is frequently made 
use of, both by divines and philosophers, in a large acceptation, to 
express the settled method of God's providence, by which he pre- 
serves the order of the material world, in such a manner, that 
nothing in it may deviate from that uniform course which he has 
appointed for it. 

The most crude observation has enabled mankind to learn many 
of the most obvious laws connected with the material world ; — that 
water seeks its level ; that heavy substances fall to the ground ; 
that blocks of wood float upon the surface of water ; that vapors 
lighter than the atmosphere ascend above the earth, according to 
the laws of gravitation ; — that air is essential to the life of certain 
animals ; that, in certain cases, water suffocates and kills them ; 
that certain juices of plants, and certain minerals attack their organs 
and destroy their life ; that fire excoriates the skin ; that alcohol 
intoxicates, and food satiates hunger according to organic laws. In 
the social relations there is less unanimity of opinion. But that 
deception, fraud,^ perjury, theft, adultery, and murder, are viola- 
tions of the moral law is quite generally conceded ; though it is a 
deplorable fact that to this there are many exceptions. 

These obvious manifestations of certain great principles are what 
has chiefly claimed the attention of philosophers, and they have 
classed them under a general head, and called them the Laws of 
Nature. In man's relation to the material elements it may be suf- 
ficient for him to know that any violation of the natural laws is 
sure to carry with it its own penalty. It makes but little difference 



THE MORAL LAW. 193 

to a man whether he knows the precise method by which death 
ensues if he is immersed in water, but a knowledge of the fact that 
he cannot maintain life under such circumstances is sufficient to 
induce him to guard against the infringement of this law. No 
sane person would attempt to cross the Atlantic in a bark canoe, 
nor to feed upon arsenic to maintain life ; for the certainty of the 
defeat of the object is sufficient to prevent such an experiment. 
In these and like cases, the penalty so immediately follows the 
infringement, that there is no probability that any one would mis- 
take the cause of their sufferings. But a man may inhabit a 
malarious district or live upon food illy adapted to his constitution, 
until his system breaks down under their destructive influence, and 
failing to discern the cause, he attributes his misfortunes to the 
inscrutable ways of Divine Providence ; but this ignorance does 
not relieve him from the penalty of his indiscretion. 

But it is in the moral and social departments where the greatest 
ignorance of man's constitution prevails, for in these we do not find 
that crude manifestation of the penalty which we observe in the 
material elements. If a man falls from the roof of a building and 
breaks his limbs, he fully comprehends the connection between the 
cause and the effect ; but when he cooperates with society in estab- 
lishing institutions which outrage the moral rights of men, and he 
in his turn, is made to suffer with others ; or, when he individually 
has perpetrated a wrong, the nature of which is slow in accom- 
plishing its retribution, he is liable to overlook the real cause of his 
afflictions and to censure the arrangement of the Divine Order in 
causing him to suffer for what he does not recognize as sins of his 
own, or the penalties of laws which he did not understand. But 
it should be remembered that this is one of the means which the 
Creator has wisely instituted to enforce upon us the importance of 
properly learning His institutions ; and that so far as we arrive at 
a full understanding of them, and place ourselves in harmony with 
their requirements, they do not fail to afford us protection and 
yield us the happiness required. If this be true, punishment is a 
benevolent arrangement of the Creator, and so far from brooding 
over our sufferings with feelings of murmuring, it behooves us as 
rational beings to set to work, so far as possible, to bring ourselves 
into harmony with His laws, as the only means by which we can 
escape the penalty of their infringement. 

If the regulations of the moral and social world had been left to 
the caprice and selfishness of men, it may be seen, that by the 



194 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

public sense of justice which prevails, the strong would outrage 
every right of the weak, the weak in return would become 
exasperated against the strong, and the whole social fabric would 
be raised from its foundation and thrown into utter confusion. 
The institution which the Creator has established, and the terrible 
consequences which grow out of their infringement, have not been 
sufficient, in man's ignorance, to preserve order and harmony in 
society ; and he has continued, age after age, to eat of the fruits 
of his own indiscretion, mourning over the pain they have caused, 
and finally, but vainly hoping that what he fails to enjoy in this 
world, though he has disregarded these institutions, he will have 
made up to him in the next. 

If it be true that God governs the order of mind as well as that 
of matter, and the visible as well as the invisible world, it appears 
rational to suppose that what is essential to the order and well 
being of man in the next life is equally essential in this. Space 
and time can have but little, if anything, to do in the changing of 
immutable institutions. It is the opinion of many, whose judg- 
ment is entitled to respect, that the laws by which this world is 
governed" are the continuation or the ultimate effects of those 
which control the spiritual world. If such should prove to be the 
case, of which we can have no reasonable doubt, then it becomes 
conclusive that that preparation or condition which best fits us to 
live in this world, also best prepares us for the next. When one 
of the disciples of Confucius begged that he would teach him to die 
well, Confucius replied, " You have not yet learned to live well ; 
when you have learnt that you will know how to die well." 

In the social and financial relations, the moral law has been so 
long and so frequently outraged, that its actual existence as an 
inherent element in the human constitution, is by many well culti- 
vated minds denied. In the middle of the seventeenth century, 
Hobbs, a man of considerable intellectual genius, taught " that we 
approve of virtuous actions, or of actions beneficial to society, from 
self-love ; because we know, that whatever promotes the interest 
of society, has, on that very account, an indirect tendency to pro- 
mote our own." He further taught, that, " as it is to the institu- 
tion of government we are indebted for all the comforts and the 
conveniences of social life, the laws which the civil magistrate en- 
joins are the ultimate standards of morality."* 

* Stewart's Outlines, p. 128. 



THE MORAL LAW. 195 

Mr. Hobbs seems to have overlooked the fact that there could 
not have been any conception of " virtuous actions," much less an 
" approval " of them, had not the principle of justice first existed in 
the mind. Conscience did not have its birth from " the institu- 
tions of government," but the reverse ; for the restraint on injurious 
conduct arose from an inherent sense of right between man and 
man. Cudworth, in opposition to Hobbs, endeavored to show that 
" the origin of our notions of right and wrong is to be found in a 
particular power of the mind, which distinguishes truth from false- 
hood." But to be able to distinguish between " truth and 
falsehood," is the result of evidence arising from the testimony of 
others or from our own analytical faculties or intuitions ; whereas, 
" the origin of our notions of right and wrong " is the work of the 
sentiment of justice. The decisions of conscience does not precede, 
but follows, the evidence in which its decision is predicated. 

Mandeville, who published in the beginning of the last century, 
maintained, as his theory of morals, that by nature man is utterly 
selfish ; that, among other desires which he likes to gratify, he has 
received a strong appetite for praise ; that the founders of society, 
availing themselves of this propensity, instituted the custom of 
dealing out a certain measure of applause for each sacrifice made 
by selfishness to the public good, and called the sacrifice a virtue. 
" Men are led, accordingly, to purchase this praise by a fair bar- 
ter ;" and the moral virtues, to use Mandeville's strong expres- 
sion, are, " the political offspring, which flattery begot upon pride ." 
And hence, when we see virtue, we see only the indulgence of 
some selfish feeling, or the compromise for this indulgence in 
expectation of some praise.* 

Mr. Hume, it is well known, wrote an elaborate treatise, to 
prove "that utility is the constituent or measure of virtue ;" in 
short, to use the emphatic language of Dr. Smith, u that we have no 
other reason for praising a man than that for which we commend 
a chest of drawers.f 

Dr. Paley, the most popular of all authors on moral philosophy, 
does not admit a natural sentiment of justice as the foundation of 
virtue, but is also an adherent of the selfish system under a modi- 
fied form. He makes virtue consist in " the doing good to man- 
kind, in obedience to the will of God and for the sake of everlast- 
ing happiness.''^. In this case, the will of God is the rule; but to 

* Fable of the Bees, vol. 1., p. 28-30. t Brown's Lectures, vol. 4, p. 32. 
J Wm. Paley's Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, p. 48. 



196 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

escape punishment and secure happiness is the motive. It is not a 
love of the right for itself, but for what it will bring. This is pure 
selfishness, and we have a right to assume on this theory, that Dr. 
Paley would as soon serve the devil as the Lord, provided he could 
offer him equal reward ; for this, like many other theories, is mak- 
ing moral goodness to consist in mere utility, and our own indivi- 
dual advantage the end to be obtained, — a utility of selfishness 
rather than any love to the neighbor, an expediency of which Satan 
himself would approve. He may, indeed, give up one pleasure, 
but in so doing he expects a greater. He sacrifices a present 
enjoyment ; but only to obtain some enjoyment which, in intensity 
and duration, is fairly worth the sacrifice. 

God has unquestionably arranged the world upon the supremacy 
of the moral sentiments ; and at the same time established institu- 
tions of punishment, to hold in check those who could not love the 
right for its own sake. If this be the case, there is a principle of 
inherent right which exists in the very nature of things, and which 
no belief, custom or usage of society can alter ; for it is a manifes- 
tation of a Divine attribute, and not a mere human institution. 

Dr. Adam Smith, in his " Theory of Moral Sentiments,' ' 
endeavors to show that the standard of moral approbation is sym- 
pathy, on the part of the impartial spectator, with the action and 
object of the party whose conduct is judged of. This is true ; and 
this " sympathy " is a correct gauge of the public sense of justice. 
But it should be borne in mind that there could be no sympathy 
for the right more than for the wrong, if the principle of equity did 
not first exist in man's constitution ; and this " standard " is varied 
in each member of society, according to the degree of his moral 
perception. 

After this brief review, I shall assume that justice exists as a 
principle in the moral universe, and that man's conception of it is in 
virtue u of possessing a moral constitution which adapts it to him, and 
him to it, without which adaptation he could never have conceived 
of its existence. That there are those, who, by their own moral 
delinquency, combined with an hereditary bias, have so far destroyed 
this principle as to no longer hear the remonstrances of conscience, 
will be conceded as a fact too conspicuous to deny. But their 
testimony in behalf of its non-existence, is entitled to no more weight 
than the criticisms of the blind upon blending shades of color ; or 
the deaf upon the delicate concords of sounds. 



THE MORAL LAW. 197 

Man is made in the image of his Creator, which, necessarily 
implies, that he possesses like principles or attributes, but in a 
finite degree ; and it appears to me, that this similitude consists, 
not in any creative power in man, but in possessing faculties cor- 
responding to each Divine attribute ; and the power of these 
faculties is in proportion to their size and healthy condition. And 
these, as so many absorbent glands, are, in their normal activity, 
receptive of the qualities of their Creator ; hence we are called 
upon to, " be perfect, even as our Father which is in heaven is 
perfect." In this view of the subject it becomes a physiological 
fact, that man is capable of fulfilling this requirement ; and he 
can have no reasonable hope of obtaining Divine favor, only so 
far as this is done. This is the ultimate perfection of the Moral 
Law. And every departure from it, whether it be undue avarice, 
injustice in any form, unwarrantable prejudice, overweening selfish- 
ness, unhallowed ambition, or a heedless disregard of religious 
obligations, widens the distance between man and his Creator. 

Dr. Paley further adds that: " It seems to me that there exists 
no such instincts as compose what is called the moral sense, or that 
they are not now to be distinguished from prejudices and habits ; 
on which account they cannot be depended upon in moral reason- 
ing : I mean that it is not a safe way of arguing, to assume certain 
principles as so many dictates, impulses, and instincts of nature, 
and to draw conclusions from these principles, as to the rectitude 
or wrongness of action, independent of the tendency of such 
actions, or of any other consideration whatever."* It appears 
to me that our perception of " rectitude or wrongness " is depen- 
dent wholly upon the principle of conscientiousness associated 
with the intellect. Conscience is the " instinct " which he 
calls " the moral sense ; " but it can have no separate action from 
the other faculties. Intellect must first decide the effect of any 
action, and conscience points out the limits which it must not 
pass ; in brief, man's duty to his fellow man. In other words, 
conscience is the avenue through which flows the principle of 
justice, and our perception of this principle is in proportion to the 
size, health and activity of this faculty. 

It appears from authentic accounts of historians and travellers, 
that there is scarcely a single vice, which in some age or country 
of the world has not been countenanced hy public opinion ; " that in 
one country it is esteemed an office of piety in children to sustain 

* Pages 33-4. 

26 



198 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

their aged parents, in another to dispatch them out of the way ; 
that suicide in one age of the world, has been heroism, in another, 
felony ; that theft, which is punished by most laws, by the laws 
of Sparta was not unfrequently rewarded ; that the promiscuous 
commerce of the sexes, although condemned by the regulations and 
censure of all civilized nations, is practiced by the savages of the 
tropical regions, without reserve, compunction or disgrace ; that 
crimes, of which it is no longer permitted us even to speak, have 
had their advocates among the sages of very renowned times ; that, 
if an inhabitant of the polished nations of Eu rope is delighted with the 
appearance, whenever he meets with it, of happiness, tranquility 
and comfort, a wild American is no less diverted with the writh- 
ings and contortions of a victim at the stake ; that even among 
ourselves, and in the present improved state of moral knowledge, 
we are far from a perfect consent in our opinions or feelings ; that 
you shall hear duelling alternately reprobated and applauded, 
according to the sex, age, or station of the person you converse 
with ; that the forgiveness of injuries and insults is accounted by 
one sort of people magnanimity, by another, meanness ; that in 
the above instances, and perhaps in most others, moral approbation 
follows the fashions and institutions of the country we live in ; 
which fashions also, and institutions themselves, have grown out of 
the exigences, the climate, situation, or local circumstances of the 
country, or have been set up by the authority of an arbitrary chief- 
tain, or the unaccountable caprice of the multitude — all of which, 
they observe, looks very little like the steady hand and indelible 
characters of nature."* 

All this seems inexplicable in view of a sentiment of moral right 
inherent in man. But it should be remembered, that the Creator 
controls man in accordance with the faculties which have been 
bestowed upon him — the relative degree of the cultivation of each, 
and the proportionate harmony of the whole. Man is to a certain 
extent an animal in his structure, powers, feelings and desires ; and 
these feelings are more prompt and spontaneous in their action, 
being as they are in more immediate contact with the external 
world, from which, in the absence of a due activity of the intellect 
and moral powers, they principally derive their stimulus, in com- 
mon with the brute creation. 

The innumerable evils which have grown out of an undue or 
disproportionate activity of this department of man's nature, have 

* Paley's Principles of Philosophy, p. 30. 



THE MORAL LAW. 199 

been instrumental in enforcing upon his attention the necessity of 
cultivating his higher powers. And the contrast which now exists 
between the most intelligent and harmonious race and the lowest 
order of mankind, is in exact proportion as the propensities are held 
in check, or controlled by the moral powers directed by the intel- 
lect. As man ascends in the scale of knowledge, and places himself 
in harmony with divine institutions, he learns, to his unspeakable 
satisfaction, that his highest enjoyment is to be found, not in mere 
selfish and antagonistic pursuits, but in compliance with moral and 
religious obligations. And the Creator has so constituted man, in 
connection with external objects, that were he to live solely in ref- 
erence to this life, he would find it greatly to his advantage to heed 
every obligation which his higher nature lays upon him. Wan- 
tonly outraging truth and honor, whether by over-reaching in 
trade, violating compacts, defaming the neighbor, withholding just 
dues, or thefts in any other form, a criminal commerce of the sexes, 
false swearing, or any vice which outrages the rights of others, 
will, with an unerring certainty, prevent the happiness and pros- 
perity of a people just in proportion as they permit, or indulge in 
such practices. Palpable as these truths are, society continues to 
groan under the burden of its own wickedness ; which not only 
isolates in feeling, its individual members, but creates a hostility of 
one towards another, and which, if it does not culminate in bitter 
revenge and bring speedy chastisement upon the offender, is sure, 
sooner or later, to meet the avenging justice of God. 

Much of the philosophy of the present time attempts to explain 
away the whole positive side of evil, and to institute in its place a 
superficial optimism. But the deepest thought of this and of every 
previous age has clearly seen that there is positive evil as well as 
negative, if in reality there can be such a thing as negative evil : 
that selfishness, hatred, cruelty, and licentiousness, in its multiplied 
forms, are not merely lower degrees of generosity, love, humanity 
and purity ; but their exact opposites, — that there is such a thing 
as a dislike to goodness, hatred of truth and aversion to God. This 
deeper thought is in harmony with all true philosophy, the deepest 
Christain experience which finds in the soul a like antagonism, and 
recognizes the presence of these great polar forces in the depths of 
our moral life. It was from a knowledge of this fact, that our Lord 
introduced into his samplary prayer, u deliver us from evil," which 
request we could not make if there was no real evil, but only a 
negative good to mar the happiness of man. 



200 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Moral Law, is that science which teaches men their duty to 
each other, and Moral Philosophy gives the explanation, or 
reason why certain acts should be prohibited and others required. 
Laws, in a divine sense, whether moral or physical, are engrafted 
in the very nature of things ; and Philosophy is the explanation 
of their rules of action. Both will claim our attention. 

The Sacred Scriptures peremptorily demand of us a conformity 
to the Moral Law ; and briefly state the consequence of obedience 
and disobedience : As, " great peace have they who obey thy 
law ;" " the wicked are like the troubled sea whose waters cannot 
rest;" " he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.; and he 
that believeth not shall be damned ;" '- righteousness exalteth a 
nation, but sin is a reproach to any people," etc., etc. ; but we are 
left to study out the modus operandi by which this is effected, in- 
asmuch as the Creator has not seen fit to instruct us in his Word,' 
of each link in the chain of causes which effect these results. 
Neither has He attempted to show us, by any logical reasoning, 
why certain duties and restraints are put upon us ; but has acted 
upon the supposition that His will being made known, human duty 
is ascertained. The Scriptures no where refer to any other founda- 
tion of virtue than the true one — the Will of God. We hear 
nothing of any other ultimate authority, — nothing of utility, sym- 
pathy, the fitness of things, the greatest amount of happiness, etc., 
but obedience to His voice is the only condition of favor. 

The Bible is, therefore, the revealed Law of all Moral science ; 
"but it makes no pretence of giving the philosophy of this law : for 
this was not practically essential. The only question to settle in 
the mind is, is it the Word of God ? If it be conceded that God 
was really its author, it then becomes a finality in authority, and 
it is enough for us to know that any certain course of life will bring 
upon us any specified result. 

We shall not, in this place, attempt to prove, in contradistinc- 
tion to infidel opinions, that all or any portion of the Bible is the 
inspired Word of God. This we shall assume ; only adding that 
it contains the internal evidence to all Christian minds, of the 
Divinity of its Author ; and that it is rational to suppose that He 
who could create man could also for ends of use, so control his 
faculties, however perverted, as to transmit His word pure, and 
perpetuate that purity, through every translation, even amidst the 
most angry disputations. It requires no very expanded concep- 
tion of the Divine Power, to believe Him able to control, for spe- 



THE MORAL LAW. 201 

cial purposes, the minds and actions of His creatures. If it be said 
that He works by general laws, with which He does not interfere 
to effect any special ends, I reply, that He is the author of those 
laws and has wisely so arranged them, as to make their action sub- 
servient to His will ; and that each single event shall be a constit- 
uent part of the whole. 

Whatever diversity of opinion there may be in reference to the 
authenticity of the Scriptures, so far as I know, it is universally 
conceded that their Moral Teachings are perfect in their require- 
ments — being founded upon strict justice between man and man. 
Such being the case, I am at liberty to use them as containing the 
highest authority sanctioned by all civilized nations. I shall there- 
fore adopt them as the expression of the Divine Will, and the 
ultimate standard of right and wrong, ignoring all subordinate 
rules of mere expediences which are in contradistinction to them. 

Every duty is a duty toward God, since it is His will which 
makes it a duty, — a will which is founded upon an infinite concep- 
tion of the greatest good to all. Immediate and remote results 
often widely differ, so that nothing short of omnipotent wisdom 
could by any possibility judge of all the consequences of any act or 
course of life, — a sufficient reason why the Divine will should be 
supreme. Without the light which the Scriptures have shed upon 
the world, mankind have never been able to determine what 
is most advantageous to their welfare, even in the present state of 
existence ; and as without the restraints which the Scriptures 
impose, man acts from impulse rather than rationality, he could 
have formed no definite idea of the moral connection between this 
life and the next ; if in fact, he could ever have had any concep- 
tions of a future life. The delights of the flesh, when uncontrolled 
by the rational principle, blind the perceptions to the consequences 
which grow out of them, and this blindness increases in exact ratio 
to the indulgence. Were there no divine prohibition, these indul- 
gences would be carried to such fearful extent as* to completely 
obliterate the moral perceptions, and men would live in herds, 
without a consciousness that there were any higher duties devolv- 
ing upon them than the gratification of their own selfish impulses. 

Man, thus left unrestrained to himself, could make no progress in 
the perception of interior truths, or in the perfection of character ; 
for he would more and more close himself against the divine influx, 
which is the only means by which he can ever hope to obtain wis- 
dom or become delivered from his evils. The Creator foreseeing 



202 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

this, has kindly vouchsafed to us such precepts as are necessary to 
save us from such a calamity ; and, in return, justly requires of us 
obedience upon their authority, without deigning to acquaint us 
with all that we might desire to know, or alluding to the propriety 
or utility of heeding His precepts. He summarily states the 
rewards of obedience and the punishments of disobedience, at the 
same time assuring us that such as do His will shall know of the 
doctrine, — clearly indicating that a philosophical comprehension of 
the principles should be the result of obedience. 

He has assured us that if we would enter into life we must keep 
the commandments. If I were asked why He imposes such a 
restraint as this, I would answer, because the commandments are 
the laws of life, informing us what the nature of our being is ; 
how we must develop it. So far from being arbitrary, they simply 
point out the way, and this way is in perfect keeping with the 
development of our moral constitution. They are not necessary 
merely because they are commanded ; but they are commanded 
because they are necessary. In other words, they are the plain 
directions, pointed out by Infinite Wisdom, to enable us to attain 
to immortal felicity. If we should inquire of one who knew the 
way to a certain place, the answer would be in the form of a com- 
mand : " Take such a road, and avoid turning into others, and go 
in such a direction, and it will conduct you to your desired place." 
The necessity of obedience does not lie in the command, but in 
the way; and the command itself grows out of the same necessity. 
Or if I, as a physician, correctly tell my patient what he must do 
in order to regain his health, or to avoid the poison that arises 
from miasmatic pools, the necessity of obedience to my command 
does not lie in my authority, but in the laws of organic life. This 
is the case with all the precepts of the Lord. If He commands 
us not to kill, nor steal, nor commit adultery, nor covet, nor bear 
false witness, it is because these things are destructive to our real 
spiritual good, and mischievous to the welfare of society. He 
commands us to love Him with all our hearts, and our neighbor as 
ourselves ; and this for the reason, that by so doing we may be 
born into the beatitudes of his spiritual and celestial kingdom. 

All organic forms are strengthened and finally matured by 
action ; 4 and their completeness can be effected in no other way. 
Now we have in embryo those internal forms, which we call the 
spiritual man, and they can become fully developed into a mature 
and harmonic existence, only by using them ; and this consists in 



THE MOKAL LAW. 203 

obedience to the commandments. We can develop the principle 
of brotherly affection only by acting from true charity as an end, 
just as we strengthen our muscles by using them; and, when we 
act from a true regard to our neighbor, we do not exercise the 
same faculty or spiritual organ that we do when we act from the 
love of self, though we may do the same natural thing. We 
exercise a higher plane of the mind ; and, in so doing, we give it 
strength, and by this means bring it out into definite and perma- 
nent form. And as this form matures, it becomes a receptacle of 
life and light from the Lord, and so far it becomes born from 
above. 

It is from such considerations as these, that we learn that there 
is an absolute and imperative necessity, grounded in the nature of 
man's constitution, that he should keen the commandments if he 
would attain to eternal life : otherwise, he forever remains without 
that fitness which would enable him to maintain an existence 
among the blessed. He may not be arbitrarily driven from the 
courts of heaven, but having no moral fitness for such a sphere, 
he cannot breathe its atmosphere, any more than we can live 
in ether, or fish in air ; hence, he will be compelled, from the 
necessity of his own condition, to voluntarily seek associates corres- 
ponding to his own state, and this he can find only among the 
inhabitants of the lower world. 

I have before said, that Man to a certain extent, is an animal, 
possessing in common with them, structures, powers, feelings and 
desires. But in addition to these, he is endowed with faculties 
which have been bestowed upon no other terrestrial creature, — 
such as to render him a rational and accountable being. And 
through him the terrestrial is allied to the celestial world ; for it is 
in him that both the material and spiritual meet. Such being the 
case, we may reasonably conclude that there are higher laws 
adapted to man than to the brut.e creation, which is governed only 
by instincts, and that these pertain to conditions which equally 
belong to the two spheres of existence. 

I am aware that it is understood, that man possesses a moral con- 
stitution which does not belong to any other earthly creature ; and 
that the Creator demands of him the fulfillment of certain moral 
obligations as the condition of salvation. But I am no^ aware that 
any philosophical or ecclesiastical exposition of moral laws has ever 
pretended to any certainty of consequences attending the infringe- 
ment of their requirements ; but have either confined their action 



204 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

to this life, or left the remission of the penalty contingent upon the 
divine mercy ; thereby precluding the idea of any fixed regulation, 
or definite rule of action. 

In the material world, all laws are inflexible and unyielding in 
their operations ; and no one rationally expects an exemption from 
the penalty of their infringement. So well satisfied are mankind of 
this, that they have sought to learn their relation to these laws in 
order that they might render them obedience by placing themselves 
in harmony with them. The moral constitution is higher than the 
physical, and it cannot rationally be supposed that while the Creator 
has arranged the natural world upon the plane of cause and effect, 
that He has left the laws of the spiritual constitution to the caprice 
of men, without attaching any fixed penalty to their infringement. 

The Bible everywhere holds up to our view the fearful contrast 
in the future, between the righteous and the wicked ; but it 
affords us no information how, or by what principle, one is to be 
rewarded and the other punished. Orderly regulations seem to 
have been established in every department of creation, and no 
where do we find it to be the plan of the Divine Being to use any 
arbitrary force in the administration of justice ; but he has so 
arranged his institutions, that the penalty follows as the legitimate 
result of the violation. This precludes all partiality and the neces- 
sity of any special interposition, and at the same time renders it 
morally certain that we shall receive the consequences of our doings, 
whether they be good or bad. 

So in the moral world, the want of success that has attended ill- 
gotten gain has been so long and frequently observed by mankind 
that it has grown into certain moral maxims — such as, " honesty is 
the best policy :" " what is procured over the Devil's back soon goes 
under his belly," etc. ; but by what principle connected with the 
human constitution, this is effected, no one, to my knowledge, has 
pretended to say, for no philosophical exposition has hitherto been 
given. Facts which are almost as numerous and quite as observa- 
ble as those which come under the laws of attraction and gravita- 
tion, have long claimed the attention of all observing minds ; but 
these facts being upon the moral plane, metaphysicians and divines, 
have failed to discover the law by which they are governed, and 
so have attributed the penalties growing out of their infringement 
to some special interference of Divine Providence, rather than to 
the legitimate working of immutable principles. 



THE MORAL LAW. 205 

The Divine teachings are full and explicit in reference to the 
certainty of the punishment of those who do not repent and forsake 
their sins. This, to a certain extent, is easy to be -understood. 
But how this punishment is to reward the injured party, so as to 
satisfy the demands of justice on both sides, is more difficult of 
comprehension. This consists in securing to each his just dues — 
consists as much in restoring to the injured party as in punishing 
the guilty. The incendiary may be sent to prison for burning my 
house, but this does not restore to me my destroyed habitation, so 
that I receive no personal benefit by the infliction of the legal penal- 
ty. To say that I derive pleasure from his punishment would only 
exhibit a vulgar revenge, wholly incompatible with Divine love, 
and discordant with a Christian spirit. Justice, therefore, still 
remains unsatisfied for though the culprit may have received his 
deserts in suffering the full penalty of the law, this really does 
nothing to redress my grievances. Hence, in a secular point of 
view, there is a link wanting in the chain of connection between 
the culprit and the injured party. Such are the imperfections of 
human laws. 

But it cannot reasonably be supposed that the laws of the Divine 
Being are obnoxious to the same criticisms. In fact, if we look 
still deeper into the occult forces which govern the social regula- 
tions, it will be found that He has so arranged these laws as to 
compel, either upon the material or spiritual plane of life, strict 
obedience to their requirements. Every moral obligation belongs to 
the plane of the spirit, and is a binding principle between the par- 
ties, and which knows of no release only by a discharge, or a wil- 
lingness to discharge the covenanted agreement. And as man is 
more than an earthly being, and the relations which he here forms, 
whether by mutual contract, or by any injustice of one of the 
parties, continues beyond the boundaries of time, so that every 
unredeemed obligation becomes a bond of connection which holds 
the parties in a perpetual relation with each other. This bond 
bears the seal of God's immutable law, and can be redeemed only 
by a redress of grievances. Until this is done, it becomes a medium 
through which the delinquent is made to yield up his spiritual forces 
to those he has injured ; nor is there any way of escape whence he 
is compelled to live in perpetual servitude to them. Sin is ever a 
binding principle ; the manacles and prison-houses for the body, 
being but the semblance of spiritual forces. Every laudable pledge 
is a moral obligation and becomes eternal unless redeemed in 



206 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

time ; and every miscreant act, though not a moral obligation, is 
an outrage of a moral law ; so that the injured party has a just 
claim upon the culprit. And as material things are of value only 
in the natural world, to pass beyond the boundaries of time with the 
wrong still unredressed, is to pass beyond the possibility of restitu- 
tion, and thus fasten upon the culprit the fearful consequences of 
this bondage forever. Who, then, understanding this law, will 
ever dare to take upon himself such a responsibility ? 

If, however, from a sense of the wrong perpetrated, there is a 
desire of repairing the injury, though circumstances over which the 
individual has now no control, may prevent it, the act, through 
repentance, becomes morally aspected in the individual conscious- 
ness of the offender. In this condition the divine sphere intercepts 
between the repentant and the wrong he has committed. But this 
by no means exonerates him from a faithful discharge of his obliga- 
tions whenever circumstances will permit. The release is not a 
release from duty, but from uncontrollable conditions, and as good 
and evil can never cohere, it is impossible to wed dishonesty and 
religion : hence no stratagem can ever set aside the divine law ; 
for God himself stands pledged on the one hand, for the faithful 
fulfillment of every moral obligation, and on the other, for the just 
chastisement of every sinful delinquency. " Vengeance is mine ; 
I will repay, saith the Lord."* Vengeance is the desert of the 
culprit ; and recompense is what is due to both parties, evil to the 
vicious and good to the virtuous. " That no man go beyond and 
defraud his brother in any matter ; because the Lord is the avenger 
of all such."f " According to their deeds, accordingly he will 
repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies." J " As 
a partridge setteth on eggs and hatcheth them not ; so is he that 
getteth riches, and not by right shall leave it in the midst of his 
days, and at his end shall be a fool."§ 

That we may more fully learn by what law the important sub- 
ject here under consideration is governed, let us contemplate it 
from a mere metaphysical point of view. Upon whatever plane 
we make our observations, we find that action and re-action are 
equal. In the merely physical universe, this principle is sufficiently 
understood to obviate the necessity of any illustration. In the 
animal kingdom, conscious action and reaction, arise from the 
necessities of a living organized structure. Physically, the action 
springs from the conscious principle stimulated by the demand for 
* £om. 12 : 19. t Thess. 4:6. J Isa. 59 : 18. § Jer. 17 : 11. 



THE MORAL LAW. 207 

food, and the law of self-protection ; the reaction from a supply 
and an exemption from intrusion. Socially, if one unnecessarily 
injures the person of another, or deprives him of his food, there is 
no moral consideration on the part of either connected with the 
outrage. Each immediately relapses into a state of quietude, with 
no other consideration of the occurrence than the physical suffer- 
ing it may have produced. Possessing no consciousness of a 
higher social order of things, their reaction is correspondent to 
their action, — the action springing from the life within, and the 
reaction from its physical necessities. 

But with man it is different. Though in common with the 
brute he possesses a nature which requires sustenance and pro- 
tection, he is at the same time endowed with Moral capabilities 
and intellectual faculties which designate the social order by which 
his physical necessities should be governed. Here springs a strata 
of action and reaction entirely above the plane of instinct. The 
Moral Sentiments are the last link in the chain of successive 
development in the arrangement of organized existence, and imme- 
diately connects with the Divine Being, so that the action and 
reaction is not merely on the plane of the physical, as in the case 
of the brute ; but between Man and the influent forces from his 
Grod. God is the active and Man the reactive party ; and so long 
as man is submissive to the Divine precepts, the reaction corre- 
sponds to the action, whence there is perfect concord between them. 
But no sooner does man knowingly violate any moral law than the 
reaction becomes adverse to the action, the mutable to the immu- 
table, the finite to the infinite ; and like the electrical currents of 
our atmosphere, induced by the action of the sun, the disturbance 
in the reactive principle is in exact ratio to its condition. It is 
not a disturbance between the parties, as between two animals, or 
man and man ; but in the reactive party into which the divine 
forces continually flow. The electrical properties of the atmos- 
phere are in virtue of the earth's relation to the sun ; the former 
being the medium of the active, and the latter of the re-active, 
conservated forces ; but the sun itself is not disturbed by the con- 
ditions of the earth, — neither is God by the conditions of man. 
The forces of the Divine sphere are such as man can neither 
control nor exclude himself from ; hence his only alternative is to 
either place himself in harmony with them, or endure the contest 
which they forever maintain with adverse principles. 



208 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Let us note the workings of the same principle between indi- 
viduals. A. purposely injures B. The injury is the fruits of 
deranged emotions acting in concert with a perverted discretion. 
These faculties being far inferior, both in quality and potency, to 
the moral sentiments with which they are obliged to contend in B. 
— provided B. is divinely aspected — are made subject to them, 
whence B. is not only the master of his own emotions, but also of the 
emotions of A., so far as himself is concerned— he rides the beast 
instead of being ridden by him. But A., having once taken con- 
nection with B. by the injury done to him, has no power to release 
himself until the injury is morally repaired, for no principle can 
insulate a man from his evils and their consequences but the Divine. 
But by conscientiously repairing the injury, he becomes equally 
divinely aspected with B . ; whence he changes his relationship to 
him from that of a slave to that of a brother. Were B. to resist 
from the emotions rather than the sentiments, the character of the 
two become the same, so that one has no preeminence over the 
other ; each take the sword — the combatant principle — and both 
perish by it. We are required not to resist evil,* nor to be over- 
come by it, but to overcome it with good ;f not that we can sub- 
due it in the adverse individual, for God himself more frequently 
fails to do this ; but we can subordinate its effects upon us, by 
maintaining a moral rather than an emotional relation to it. 

From these considerations it is evident that every voluntary 
contract of whatever nature, becomes a principle of connection be- 
tween the parties ; and that every moral contract holds them 
responsible for the faithful fulfillment of their obligations. Any 
voluntary delinquency in the discharge of these obligations becomes 
an indenture against the delinquent, forever holding him in servi- 
tude to the injured party. Sin is a bondage, which compels the 
sinner to serve, not only Satan, to whose influence he has yielded, 
but also those against whom the sin has been committed. But the 
upright are delivered from all task-masters, while, at the same 
time, their enemies are compelled to serve them ; hence we are 
assured that " all things work together for good to those who love 
God." How terrible, then, are the consequences of sin ! It 
breeds within the life the undying worm which consumes and de- 
prives the soul of its Divine protection, and forever lays it bare to 
the fires that are never quenched. It binds the immortal conscious- 

*Matt. 5: 39. t Rom. 12: 21. 



THE MORAL LAW. 209 

ness with chains of darkness and confines it in the prison-house of 
the damned, there to toil forever for those they have wronged. 

In the financial world there are many who suppose that they 
can, by deception and fraud, first secure to themselves this world's 
goods, and then seek and obtain Divine favor, and thus enjoy both 
riches here and heaven hereafter. This implies a deliberate fraud 
upon the Divine Mercy ; and makes reformation a mere stratagem 
to escape justice, rather than any actual repentance of the wrong- 
committed. Bat it should be remembered that God can read, not 
only the motive by which all acts are governed, but has at the same 
time so arranged the constitution of man, that forgiveness is the 
result alone of a sincere and hearty repentance for all wrong ; and 
this can take place, only so far as there exists a willingness to make 
a complete restoration of all just dues to the injured party. 

Repentance, and at the same time retaining goods fraudulently 
procured, is a moral paradox, — one is at antipodes with the other. 
Equity, accompanied by a broken and a contrite heart, is what is 
here required. No holding back of just dues will cancel the moral 
bond. No shrewd investments, dictated by worldly policy, can buy 
for the transgressor an eternal felicity, even though he give all of his 
stolen goods to popular institutions. Justice is what is demanded, 
and not a sickly, sentimental generosity in the distribution of goods, 
not honestly procured, and at a time when they are no longer 
needed. The Divine injunction is : " If thou bring thy gift to the 
altar and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against 
thee ; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way ; first be 
reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."* 

Our Lord's teaching is here plain and explicit, and most clearly 
shows how utterly unavailing will be any attempt to obtain par- 
doning mercy while an injured brother remains unredressed. The 
Levitical law, containing both the outward requirements and spirit- 
ual significance, is no less imperative in its demands. " If a soul sin 
and commit a trespass against the Lord, and lie unto his neighbor 
in that which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship, or in 
a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his neighbor, or 
have found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and 
sweareth falsely ; in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning 
therein : then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, 
that he shall restore that which he took violently away, or the 
thing which he hath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered 

* Matt. 5 : 23, 24. 



210 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

him to keep, or the lost thing which he found, or all that about 
which he hath sworn falsely ; he shall even restore it in the prin- 
cipal, and shall add the fifth part more thereto, and give it unto 
him to whom it appertaineth, in the day of his trespass-offering."* 

This covers the whole ground of trespasses wittingly committed ; 
and the Divine requirements are such as to deprive us of all hope 
of any pardoning mercy, so long as anything unjustly obtained is 
allowed to remain with us ; and to more fully protect men in their 
rights, one-fifth, or twenty per cent., is to be added to the original 
demand. This regulation will deprive every one of the desire of 
over-reaching his neighbor, or in any way defrauding him, unless 
he is willing to take the consequences of his conduct. 

The Scripture injunction, " Thou shalt not steal," evidently 
implies every fraudulent effort to obtain, or appropriate that which 
justly belongs to another. Whoever does this, or in any way 
secures to himself, by any deception or fraud, the goods of others, 
is no less a thief in soul and before heaven, than he who pilfers 
under the darkness of night. The manner by which goods are 
fraudulently procured has no moral bearing upon the thief; neither 
is it of but little importance to the victim of his thefts, whether he 
is robbed through false representations, secresy, or by force, so far 
as the loss of goods is concerned. We are now speaking of the 
unjust transfer of goods from the hands of one individual to those 
of another, by whatever means it may be effected ; including also, 
all unredeemed pledges, as these, in all civil transactions, were the 
means of obtaining trust. 

But there are other very important considerations connected with 
financial thefts. 1. Its consequences upon the thief. It enters 
deeper into the spiritual mind than any other evil ; and this for 
the reason, that it is conjoined to deceit and cunning, and these 
insinuate themselves even into the spiritual nature of man, which 
is the seat of his thought as grounded in the understanding, and 
thus poisons the very citadel of life. 2. It corrupts society and 
destroys all confidence in business relations, subjects others to 
heavy and otherwise unnecessary expenses, and greatly excites 
fearful apprehensions against those who are otherwise honest, and 
they, in turn, become tempted, through what appears to them a 
necessity to perpetrate like frauds upon others. " Many therefore 
have refused to lend for other men's ill dealing, fearing to be de- 
frauded."! 3. I fc greatly weakens the force of conscience, and 
t Eccle. of Apocrapha, 29 : 7. * Lev. 6 : 2-5. 



THE MORAL LAW. 211 

through it the acuteness of the moral perceptions, and like an infec- 
tious disease corrupts every department of human association. The 
weakening of the moral forces withdraws the restraint to vicious 
habits and opens the avenues for other and still more grievous 
social disorders. 

" Political economists," says George Comb, " have never taught 
that the world is arraigned on the principle of supremacy of the 
moral sentiments — that consequently, to render man happy, his 
leading pursuits must be such as will exercise and gratify these 
powers, and that his life will necessarily be miserable if devoted 
entirely to the production of wealth. They rJn^e proceeded on 
the notion that the accumulation of wealth is the summum bonum ; 
but all history testifies, that natural happiness does not invariably 
increase in proportion to natural riches ; and until they shall per- 
ceive and teach, that intelligence and morality are the foundation 
of all lasting prosperity, they will never interest the great body of 
mankind, nor give any valuable direction to their efforts." 

If the views contained in the present essay be sound, it will be- 
come a leading object with future masters in that science to demon- 
strate the necessity that civilized man should be actuated by jus- 
tice, and should seek to increase his moral and intellectual percep- 
tions, as the only means of saving himself from ceaseless punish- 
ment under the natural laws. 

The few examples which the present corrupt state of society 
afford of men, who, in their business relations, are actuated by a 
principle of justice, and at the same time possess sufficient acumen 
to protect themselves from heavy losses by the dishonesty of others, 
clearly illustrates the advantage, even in a worldly point of view, 
of adhering to the moral law. The confidence they secure, enables 
them to avail themselves of the most advantageous financial rela- 
tions, and to obtain loans and trusts, which can justly be made 
available to their interest. The municipal laws, to such, are of no 
importance only so far as they restrain the vicious ; being them- 
selves governed by the higher law of moral rectitude. In this 
way they not only reap the advantage of the confidence and re- 
spect of others by promoting the welfare of society, but they gather 
a rich harvest of enjoyment from the consciousness of having dis- 
charged their duty to the world from a sense and a love of the 
right, and they confidently look forward to the enduring reward of 
the just. 



212 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

If it be true that the Creator has arranged the world in harmony 
with the Moral constitution of man, it is clearly evident that the 
greatest amount of happiness and prosperity is derived from 
obedience to the Moral law. It cannot reasonably be expected 
that man can become either happy or useful while living in habitual 
opposition to the Creator's institutions. The antagonism between 
his unlawful desires and the forces which he cannot overcome, 
deprive him of the enjoyment he might otherwise attain, and con- 
tinually render him subject to influences adverse to his interest. 
" If an individual has received, at birth, a sound organic constitu- 
tion and favorably developed brain, and if he live in accordance 
with the physical, the organic, the moral and intellectual laws, it 
appears to me that, in the constitution of the world, he has received 
an assurance from the Creator, of provision for his animal wants, 
and a high enjoyment in the legitimate exercise of his various 
mental powers."* 

" Let us trace the advantage of obedience. In the domestic 
circle, if we preserve habitually Benevolence, Conscentiousness, 
Veneration and Intellect supreme, it is quite undeniable that we 
shall rouse the moral and intellectual faculties of children, servants 
and assistants to love us, and to yield us willing service, obedience 
and aid. Our commands will then be reasonable, mild and easily 
executed, and the commerce will be that of love. With our equals, 
again, in society, what would we not give for a friend in whom we 
were perfectly convinced of the supremacy of tne moral sentiments ; 
what love, confidence and delight would we not repose in him ? 
To a merchant, physician, lawyer, magistrate, or an individual in 
any public employment, how invaluable would be the habitual 
supremacy of these sentiments ! The Creator has given different 
talents to different individuals, and limited our powers, so that we 
execute any work best by confining our attention to one department 
of labor, — an arrangement which amounts to a direct institution 
of separate trades and professions. Under the natural laws, then, the 
manufacturer may pursue his calling with the entire approbation 
of all the moral sentiments, for he is dedicating his talents to supply 
the wants of his fellow-men ; and how much more successful will 
he not be, if his every wish is accompanied by the desire to act 
benevolently and honestly towards those who are to censume and 
pay for the products of his labor ? He cannot gratify his Acquisi- 
tiveness half so successfully by any other method. The same 
*Geo. Comb's Con. of Man, p. 207. 



THE MORAL LAW. 213 

remark applies to the merchant, the lawyer, and physician. The 
lawyer and physician whose whole spirit breathes a disinterested 
desire to consult, as a paramount object, the interest of their clients 
and patients, not only obtain the direct reward of gratifying their 
own moral faculties, which is no slight enjoyment, but also reap a 
positive gratification to their Self-Esteem and Love of Approba- 
tion, in a high and well founded reputation, and to their 
Acquisitiveness, in increasing emolument, not grudgingly paid, but 
willingly offered, from persons who feel the worth of the services 
bestowed."* 

Municipal laws are chiefly enacted amid angry disputations, 
growing out of selfish interest, and by men undisciplined in the 
higher principles of life. With few exceptions, those who seek 
political positions do so from selfish ends, rather than any interest 
in the welfare of their constituents. Blinded by evil, the percep- 
tions distorted, and the judgment bewildered, they frequently enact 
laws, which, though well-intended, and presenting a plausible 
appearance, are better calculated to defeat than to promote the 
ends of justice. Too short-sighted to perceive what use may be 
made of their indiscrete enactments, they, like the empyric, pre- 
scribe regulations which are as likely to kill as to cure, — regula- 
tions which are neither prophylactic nor remedial. 

But this is not the worst feature. It has become a fact apparent 
to all, that men utterly lost to every moral sense, — men of mean 
spirit and base practices, attain to high official positions, which 
they prostitute to the spirit of avarice, and freely barter justice for 
gain. In cases literally innumerable, the underlying motive of 
legislation is personal greed, rather than any regard to the public 
welfare. Official positions are sought as the most ready means of 
obtaining heavy bribes, and of defrauding the State. In fact, we 
have long since ceased to look in this direction for any high-toned 
morality, for any unselfish action. Our legislative and congres- 
sional halls have become to be associated, in the public mind, with 
all that is vile and corrupt,— are looked upon as so many dens of 
corporate bodies of swindlers and thieves. It is true that a large 
portion of the members are mere ciphers who only multiply votes, 
but who neither share in the plunder nor prevent others. We 
will give a single example, taken from the New York Tribune, a 
journal well posted in the political chicanery of this country : 

* Geo. Combs' Con. of Man, 205-6. 

28 



214 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

" The Albany Legislature is ending its career as it begun, with 
corruption. As was predicted, the Speakership bribery case has 
borne its bitter fruits through the entire session, and even extended 
into the Senate. It is now stated on good authority, that no less 
than fourteen Senators have a personal interest in the famous 
Broadway Railroad scheme. If this is true, it accounts for the 
extraordinary persistence of the inevitable majority of sixteen, 
which, in spite of facts and justice, resolutely repeated the stereo- 
typed vote that finally sent a measure to the Assembly which 
swindles the working people of this city — for on them the burden 
will fall — out of three millions of dollars which goes into the 
pockets of speculators and legislators. 

" The news that the bill, contrary to general expectation, will, 
undoubtedly, pass the Assembly, goes far to prove that the means 
which have been found so effective in the Senate are not wanting 
in the popular branch. Indeed, it is asserted by a journal of high 
authority on such matters, that the committees in either branch of 
the legislature have organized a regular system of corruption, and 
adopted a schedule of tolls. Prices vary to suit the means of 
customers. From one hundred to two hundred and fifty dollars 
are demanded for important measures ; but fifty or even twenty 
dollars are not refused when no more can be obtained. This latter 
is a small price for a legislator, but when a Speakership has been 
knocked down for twelve hundred dollars, the market for the lesser 
fry cannot rule high. We are told: i How much money is there 
in this bill ? ' is the first inquiry when a proposition is submitted, 
and 'have they their money in Albany?' is the next. Cash 
down, is the rule, promises to pay and offers of an interest con- 
tingent on the passage of a bill, being utterly scouted. 

" That is one way. But here is another example that has just 
transpired, which we select from many that have come to our 
knowledge, to illustrate the mode of operating in New York City 
bills, which always yield the richest harvest. A certain interest 
was required to bear on a certain measure of high municipal 
interest. The party, when applied to, stated that he had no 
interest in the measure and would take no trouble about it. He 
was then offered a good place under the bill, but this he did not 
need, and would not accept. He was then told that so many 
green backs had been offered for that particular berth, and that it 
would readily command a certain stated sum in the market. This 
was tangible, The required interest was promised, and the bill 



THE MORAL LAW. 215 

will, no doubt, go through without any apprehension on the part 
of the managers that the tax-payers will ever be the wiser, though 
they must certainly be the poorer for the transaction. So it goes 
all through. The Legislature of 1863 bids fair to obtain as black 
a name as that of 1860. With honorable exceptions, no consider- 
ations of honor, patriotism or duty prevail. The star of Calli- 
cott casts its lurid glare over the whole Albany horizon. Thur- 
low Weed never displayed more sagacity than when he cut away 
from the system, and refused to have anything to do w T ith the 
organization of the committees of the Assembly. He seems to 
have had a foreboding of what was to come. Unfortunately, the 
New York Legislature does not stand alone in its infamy. The 
Pennsylvania Legislature, which has just terminated its session, 
was still worse. There the transactions were more open, and it 
was well understood that no measure could pass without a money 
payment to the committees and members. What New York City 
is to Albany, Philadelphia was to Harrisburg, and the Quaker 
City was squeezed by all the numerous devices of street railroad 
schemes and close corporation monopolies that afflict us." 

Judging from the statement of Mr. Herbert Spencer, it is evi- 
dent that our trans-atlantic brethren are but little if any behind 
us in this shameful venality : " How invariably officialism becomes 
corrupt, every one knows. Exposed to no such anti-septic as free 
competition, — not dependent for existence, as private unendowed 
organizations are, upon the maintenance of a vigorous vitality ; all 
law-made agencies fall into an inert, over-fed state, from which to 
disease is a short step. Salaries flow in irrespective of the activity 
with which duty is performed ; continue after duty wholly ceases ; 
become rich prizes for the idle well-born ; and prompt to perjury, 
to bribery, to simony. East India directors are elected, not for 
any administrative capacity they may have ; but they buy votes by 
promised patronage, — a patronage alike asked and given, — in utter 
disregard of the welfare of a hundred millions of people. Regis- 
trars of wills not only get many thousands a year each for doing 
work which their miserably paid deputies leave half done, but 
they, in some cases, defraud the revenue, and that after repeated 
reprimands. Dock-yard promotion is the result, not of efficient 
services, but of political favoritism. That they may continue to 
hold rich living, clergymen preach what they do not believe ; 
bishops make false returns of their revenues ; and at their elections 
to college fellowship, well-to-do priests make oath that they are 



216 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

pauper ', plus et doctus. From the local inspector, whose eyes are 
shut to an abuse by a contractor's present, up to the prime minis- 
ter, who finds lucrative births for his relations, this venality is daily 
illustrated ; and that in spite of public reprobation and perpetual 
attempt to prevent it."* 

From these pestiferous cess-pools of legislative wickedness issue 
the streams of innumerable social disorders. Rascalities in the 
rulers will be sure to beget rascalities in the people. Confucius 
maintained the well-founded opinion, that " if wise and virtuous 
men were to govern the state for a hundred years, they would put 
an end to tyranny and punishment." It is equally true, that a 
wise and virtuous people would never produce corrupt representa- 
tives, — the reaction is only equal to the action. The rulers are 
but the conservated forces of the people rendered active and re- 
flected back upon them, — forces which they not only sustain, but 
which they first induced. No penal regulations can long continue, 
after they are outgrown by the people from which they had their 
birth. 

Whatever may be the moral condition of society, its most active 
elements will be sure to rise to the top ; and these represent, in an 
active form, the more latent conditions of the masses. But as they 
are the positive rather than the negative elements, they are capable 
of determining the quality of the remainder. It is to this principle 
we are indebted for the long-since established maxim, u As are the 
rulers so are the people." To the corruption of the representa- 
tives is due the corruption of the public morals ; the corruption of 
the public morals sustains the corruption of the representatives. 
Like the forces playing between the sun and the earth, or husband 
and wife, it is a system of action and reaction, one ever augment- 
ing the other. As in the United States Government, the North 
compromised with the evils of the South, and the South sought to 
slay the North, so the State vies with the evils of its Representa- 
tives without preventing them, and its Representatives enact laws 
and grant individual monopolies which ruin the State. 

Evidently there is too much law and too little justice. Great 
reform is here especially needed. But this can be effected only 
through men more highly gifted with moral qualities. To secure 
this through the elective franchise, it is first necessary to elevate 
the standard of morals among the masses. So long as there is a 
sufficient number of unprincipled men to be found in every district 

* Essays p. 71-2. 



THE MORAL LAW. 217 

to carry an election, who, for a trifling sum, will sell their votes, 
there will be no lack of ambitious politicians who will mount into 
official positions which they are illy adapted to fill, and add the 
weight of their new position against the welfare of society. 

The Ten Commandments in the decalogue afford us a striking 
example of moral legislation. They are brief, concise, and easy to 
be understood, and at the same time contain all that Infinite Wis- 
dom saw to be necessary for the direction and control of man. 
Hedged round with tremendous penalties, they are prohibitive of 
vice, and a stimulus to virtue — a faultless moral law. The benefit 
residing in so just and comprehensible a standard is incalculable. 
Could we find men of sufficient moral acumen to enable them to 
discretely and judiciously administer these simple enactments in 
the spirit in which they were given, I believe that no others would 
be needed. 

u Thou shalt not steal," implies that we shall not deprive any 
one of his goods, secretly, or under any pretence, whether by impo- 
sition, robbery, false representations, illegitimate gains, usuries, 
exactions or fraudulent practices. Justice is the principle involved 
in this law ; not specifying merely the means by which it might 
be violated, for all become obnoxious to its penalties who 
outrage the strict principles of right between man and man. 
Nothing can be more simple, nothing can be more just, than this 
precept. Nevertheless, how few heed it ! 

" Thou shalt not covet," is a precept against that condition of 
mind which seeks to unjustly appropriate, or lusteth after, those 
things which belong to another. To covet, is the first incentive to 
theft ; and to avoid theft in act, we must avoid it in spirit. To steal, 
is to injure another; to covet, is to injure ourselves, — in any case, 
the first injury is to the transgressor. 

" Thou shalt not commit adultery," requires us to abstain from 
whoredoms, obscene practices, wanton desires and filthy thoughts. 
And for a protection of our own spiritual purity, we are prohibited 
from lusting after things forbidden ; otherwise the act would enter 
into the Will, and be committed in spirit though not ultimated into 
the life. This precept is designed to restrain us from infringing 
upon the most sacred rights of others, and from corrupting our own 
souls ; and like the rest, has special reference to the good of the 
individual and of society. 

" Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor," implies 
that we should be truthful in all that pertains to another, whether 



218 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

it be before a judge, or before others not in court of justice, that we 
should not rashly accuse any one of any evil ; that we should not 
traduce and defame the neighbor, so that his honor, name, or fame, 
on which his character depends, are injured. In the widest natural 
sense, are meant : unfaithfulness, stratagems, and evil purposes 
against any one, originating either in enmity, hatred, revenge, 
envy, rivalry, etc., for these evils conceal within them the testifying 
of what is false. 

But in legal jurisprudence it is far otherwise. Theft has grown 
into a daily practice in every department of the financial relations, 
and is carried to a fearful extent, without any apprehension of pun- 
ishment. The penalty of the penal law is confined to certain forms 
of theft, and not to its spirit. A man who steals the small sum 
of twenty dollars under the covert of night, or forcibly robs another 
of a dime, may be imprisoned and disgraced for life. But he may 
steal any amount, however large, by deception and fraud, the meanest 
of vices, and avoid imprisonment and maintain his relations in 
society. And in cases literally innumerable, he obtains his social 
position through the means of wealth thus wickedly procured. 
Even in New England, many fortunes have been reared by stealing 
negroes upon the coast of Africa and transporting them to Southern 
slave markets and selling them into perpetual servitude. And so 
feeble was the moral sense of the public, that the perpetrators of 
these enormous crimes went unrebuked, while he who robbed his 
neighbor's yard of a single fowl was hunted from society. 

Another common method of committing this species of theft is, 
for the villain to first surround himself with the appearances of 
wealth, either by creditor otherwise, and then procure heavy loans 
of money, or credit for goods, and before payment becomes due, 
transfer all the property to his wife, son, or some confidential 
friend, and then repudiate payment. He afterwards lives in luxury 
upon his stolen goods, secure from any penalty, other than that 
established by the Creator in the constitution of man. Such may 
solace themselves with the idea that " Stolen waters are sweet, 
and bread eaten in secret is pleasant," but the time will come when 
they will learn " that the dead are there ; and that their guests 
are in the depth of hell."* 

Were the legislature to pass an enactment, in addition to the law 
against burglary, of such a nature that an invited guest to the hos- 
pitalities of the house, might with impunity pillage the house of all 
* Prov. 9 : 17, 18. 



THE MORAL LAW. 219 

its contents, and then burn it to the ground, it would be founded, 
in many respects, upon no less injustice than the present horrid 
system for the collection of debts. I am aware that this state of 
things has grown out of the impracticable idea of enforcing, in all 
cases of trust, ample security for the payment. I say impracticable, 
for almost every man in business requires, from time to time, 
accommodation from those with whom he deals. In fact, it would 
be difficult to carry on business in any other way. This business 
necessity is used as an occasion, by a miscreant class of men, to 
perfidiously defraud their creditors ; and which they can deliber- 
ately and purposely do, without any liability to the punishment 
justly due their crime. I do not understand why we should be called 
upon to demand indemnity in every business transaction, more than 
we should require of our guests security against their pilfering our 
plate from the table, or our clothes from the wardrobe. Both, 
alike, are trusted upon the supposition of honesty ; which trust, if 
outraged, they are equally guilty and deserving of punishment. 
The law would imprison one, and clear the other as an insolvent 
debtor. It operates badly to both debtor and creditor, for it 
encourages villainy in one and compels distrust in the other. I am 
offering no plea in behalf of severity in cases of actual misfortune ; 
but for the punishment due that reckless dishonesty which obviously 
characterizes every business circle. 

The betrayers of trust are twice the villains of common thieves ; 
for, by such acts, they not only rob others of their goods, but, at the 
same time, destroy that confidence between man and man which is 
the only basis of a healthy society. The disastrous consequences, 
growing out of such evident manifestations of dishonesty, are every- 
where visible in the secular relations of life. It has so weakened 
the moral sense of the public, that the most flagrant crimes are 
passed over in silence, — crimes which, in a more virtuous age, 
were severely punished. The mind naturally becomes inured to 
such things as are of daily observation and experience ; and this 
loose state of morals has so lowered the public standard of right, 
that conscientiousness has, to a great degree, ceased to utter its 
remonstrance against this evil. Our country is now suffering under 
a moral paralysis. 

There have many things combined to produce this sad result. 
A Republican form of government gives the greatest liberty to the 
freedom of speech ; and scarcely less to the freedom of action. 
The vicious, who much need the restraining influence of whole- 



220 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

some regulations, have abused the liberty granted them, and, in 
addition to their personal examples, used the press and rostrum to 
disseminate their pernicious principles. This cool, calculating, 
intellectual wickedness, reduced to practice, eats out the very 
heart and core of virtue, and, like a deadly mildew, blights and 
shrivels the blooming promise of the human spring. Its benumb- 
ing touch communicates a torpid sluggishness, which paralyzes the 
soul. It descants on depravity as virtue, and details its grossest 
acts as frigidly as if its object were to allay the tumult of the pas- 
sions, while it is letting them loose on mankind, by plucking off 
the muzzle of present restraint and future accountability. Evils 
so obvious could never have grown to such colossal proportions in 
any community where the moral powers were in any great degree 
of activity. 

I desire not to be understood as making any plea against the 
freedom of speech ; but deplore the disastrous use which has too 
frequently been made of it. Experience has afforded us many 
striking examples that where it is indulged in its fullest extent, a 
multitude of ridiculous opinions will be obtruded upon the public ; 
but pernicious as they are in corrupting the youth and vitiating 
the public taste, I believe that the tyranny which would be neces- 
sary to suppress it, would prove a still greater evil. Publications, 
besides, like everything else that is human, are of a mixed nature, 
where truth is often blended with falsehood, and important hints 
suggested in the midst of impertinent or mischievous matter; nor 
is there any way of separating the precious from the vile but by 
tolerating the whole. Where the right of unlimited inquiry is 
exerted, the human faculties will be upon the advance ; where it 
is relinquished, they will be of necessity, at a stand, and men pro- 
bably will decline. But there should be limits to such freedom. 
While the fullest liberty may be given to the expression of specu- 
lative opinions, the right to disseminate blasphemy, either by public 
harangues or publications^should be prohibited. For blasphemy, 
which is speaking contumeliously of God, is not a speculative error ; 
it is an overt act ; a crime which no state should tolerate. 

The State is a moral society resting on Law, as the Church is a 
religious society resting on the Gospel. The one is necessarily 
limited and national ; the other, catholic and universal. The 
former looks to temporal welfare ; the latter, to eternal. But the 
interest of the two can never become wholly independent of each 
other; for spiritual prosperity has its natural basis in temporal 



THE MORAL LAW. 221 

rectitude. Therefore, while the gospel, on the one hand, should 
become the inspiring and vital principle of the law ; on the other, 
the law should be so framed and administered, as to become the 
schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Secular laws should be but the 
conservated action of Divine laws, — the successive descent of the 
gospel into the most ultimate planes of life ; and no law should be 
allowed to exist upon the statute that is not a helpmeet to the gos- 
pel. Each becomes potent for good only as they are united into a 
dual force. And inasmuch as all laws should be founded upon a 
religious basis, it is the rightful prerogative of the church to become 
the law-maker, whenever it can free itself from the imperfections 
incident to the rest of mankind. 

Religion is the highest principle in the constitution of man, and 
that which immediately conjoins him to his Maker. The proper 
exercise of this establishes a healthy condition in every other, — 
subordinating the lower to the higher, by bringing all transactions 
within the sphere of equity. No other arrangement can ever estab- 
lish order in the individual ; and until this is done he is quite 
incompetent to become the ruler of others. I here use the term 
religion in its most catholic sense, without party strife, but a belief 
in the Christian Scriptures and a conscientious obedience to God. 
With such a fundamental basis for jurisprudential proceedings, 
there could be no reasonable apprehensions of any large amount of 
injustice to mankind. 

I am aware that owing to the shameful abuse which the Roman 
Catholic Church made of the ecclesiastical power to which it 
attained, that there would very naturally arise fearful apprehen- 
sions of the consequences of a reunion of Church and State. 
The terrific lesson of the " dark ages " will not be soon forgotten ; 
its eclipse of every principle of justice will cast its long shadow 
over centuries to come, and history will forever point to it as the 
awful moral scourge which desolated the world. But this was no 
test of the Christian principle in the government of mankind ; 
for though the government assumed the Christian name, no rulers 
were ever further removed from the Christian Spirit. The Romish 
Church was based upon Pride, which is self-loving, self-asserting, 
aggressive, fond of display, and rejoiced in the splendors of an arti- 
ficial existence, — its law was conquest. The true Christian Church 
is based upon Humility, which is just, pacific, contented with its 
own, helps such as need, loving God and the neighbor, — its law 
is growth. Thus directly opposed to each other, they produce 

29 



222 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

directly opposite effects. If, therefore, the union of Catholicism 
and State terribly cursed mankind, the union of the true Christian 
Church and State would greatly bless mankind. 

The breaking of the old connection was indispensable in order 
for the establishment of the new. In wresting the State from 
ecclesiastical hands, Satan lost his power to mar and slaughter 
the servants of the Lord through his priestly emissaries. The 
lesson, when philosophically viewed, is one of encouragement 
rather than discouragement ; for if Satan could accomplish such a 
fearful amount of evil through the religious forces of mankind, 
when prostituted to his service, and holding the sceptre of State, 
mav we not reasonably conclude that God can accomplish far more 
through the same forces when subordinated to His rule and wield- 
ing the sceptre of mercy and justice over the world ? — the lesson 
is one, teaching us the potency of the religious principle in what- 
ever direction it is turned. And may we not hope that the 
religious community will yet become so imbued with the spirit of 
their Divine Master, that He will place His sceptre in their hands 
for the subjugation of Satan's kingdom on earth. Church and 
State are but two halves of one whole, — they both belong to the 
province of Religion, and the Lord's kingdom can never become 
fully established among men until it is ultimated into every secular 
department of life. 

A religion founded exclusively upon Biblical principles without 
the contamination of party creeds, or the deformity of worldly and 
selfish ostentation, would become a proper basis for an ecclesiastical 
form of government. Municipal laws should be verbal expressions 
alone of justice. And as the highest perceptions of justice can only 
grow out of a religious life, it necessarily becomes the first essential 
qualification, both of the framers and executors of the laws. To 
found laws upon injustice, is to compel a submission to the wrong 
and to weaken the moral sensibility of the public. The Jewish 
hierarchy was inaugurated by the Lord himself, through the instru- 
mentality of Christian men. Here was the highest, yet simplest 
form of government ever presented to the world, beautifully blend- 
ing the penal and ecclesiastical. So nicely were these adapted to 
the needs of man, that the nation was prosperous and happy in 
exact ratio to its obedience. The unwavering fidelity of Moses to 
the right, rendered him a competent medium through whom the 
Divine influence could descend and ultimate itself into healthy social 
regulations. This, and this alone, was his chief and fundamental 



THE MORAL LAW. 223 

qualification as a law-giver. What was true then is no less true 
now, — the conditions then required are imperative upon us. 

These Jurisprudential regulations were introduced as the hand- 
maid to the Christian Religion, — they were mutual helps to each 
other. In fact, among an apostate people, one cannot exist without 
the other. In this, as in every other department of life, sin was 
the only divorcing principle. So far as it did not divorce, it sub- 
verted their orderly action. The Church ceased to be the head 
and director of the State ; but the State became the dictator to the 
Church. Nationally, as individually, the higher became subordin- 
ated to the lower, — human regulations usurped the position of the 
Divine. 

In the Levitical priesthood the government was given to the 
Church, and its chief functionaries instituted such laws as were 
necessary for the maintainance of the public morals. It was only 
when the people became corrupt and unwilling longer to brook 
the restraint put upon their evil loves, that they were dissatisfied 
with the Divine arrangement and became clamorous for a King. 
The sons of Samuel whom he in his old age made judges over 
Israel, " walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and 
took bribes, and perverted judgment. Then all the elders of Israel 
gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, 
and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in 
thy ways : now make us a King to judge us like all the nations. 
But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a King 
to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord 
said unto Samuel, Harken unto the voice of the people in all that 
they say unto thee ; for they have not rejected thee, but they have 
rejected me, that I should not reign over them"* 

In this brief statement we have the fundamental distinction be- 
tween a kingly, and a true 'priestly rule. One is the conservated 
action of the Divine Sphere operating through His servants to 
maintain brotherly love and a due regard to the interest of others ; 
the other is the sphere of carnality operating through selfish individ- 
uals to maintain the supremacy of the self-hood. And so long as 
the self-hood is paramount to the love of the neighbor, men will 
continue to pay tribute to Cassar rather than to God. 

The Catholic Church, a church only in name, was inaugurated 
by Constantine and Licinius, men of more worldly ambition than 
religious devotion. They could not endow the Church with what 
* 1 Sam. 8 : 3-7. 



224 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

they did not possess — they gave to her no divine qualities, but 
protection. Under this protection she flourished, not in religious 
principles, but in ecclesiastical privileges. At last, the Pope lost 
sight of the Christian spirit, and declared himself the vicegerent of 
Heaven, and taking advantage of the superstitions of an ignorant 
populace, vied with the King until he became more kingly than 
the King himself. In the meantime the real priestly office became 
extinct, and the world was involved in that complete moral obscura- 
tion known as the dark ages. 

Through Constantine, the Church assumed a negative position to 
the State rather than to the Lord. It was in this false relation 
that she committed her great whoredom and became " the mother 
of harlots." Whenever the higher principle becomes subordinated 
to the lower, whether in nations or individuals, mind or matter, 
disastrous consequences are ever sure to follow. In fact, hell itself 
is formed by this inverted action ; and no system of things ever 
more effectually displayed its operations upon earth, than the 
Romish church after it apostatized from the true Christian Religion, 
— it was the culmination of ignorance, bigotry, superstition and 
cruelty. What Constantine intended for the good of the Church, 
Satan intended for its overthrow. Had he have placed the State 
under the protection of the Church, instead of the Church under 
the protection of the State, the arrangement would have been an 
orderly one, and both saved from the awful degradation into which 
they fell. The subordinate connection which the Church still holds 
to the State are the remnants of the beastly rule. 

To become divinely illuminated, so as to be enabled to enact or 
administer just laws, it is first necessary to become conjoined to 
Him from whom light and justice is derived. The darkened moral 
perceptions, and the impetuous and clamorous impulses of unre- 
generated men, have ever proved inadequate to the proper con- 
struction and execution of such civil regulations as shall protect the 
rights of each and maintain the moral order of society. The mul- 
tiplicity of incoherent and often contradictory and immoral enact- 
ments which disgrace the statutes of every state and nation, and the 
still more wicked and pernicious decisions which blot the records 
of the bench, furnish a fearful commentary upon the moral condi- 
tion of society, — they clearly demonstrate the unfitness of the 
depraved and irreligious to fill important offices in the administra- 
tion of justice. So utterly corrupt have become much of the legal 
regulations of society and judiciary proceedings, that they not only 



THE MORAL LAW. 225 

fail to effect any laudable end, but more frequently completely 
subvert the ends of justice. In instances literally innumerable the 
laws afford a complete protection of the worst villains from the 
punishment justly their due. Almost every crime, crimes of ter- 
rible moral turpitude are openly committed without incurring any 
legal penalty whatever. The most unprincipled thefts, committed 
under the guise of trade, have become a branch of the commerce of 
the world ; and so far from being penal, the laws afford them the most 
ample protection. Nothing is more common than for men to 
be robbed, many of all they possess, by bare-faced villainy, couched 
beneath false representations,* and the perfidious culprit is allowed 
to roam at will, repeating his depredations, varying the mode in 
order to entrap new victims and luxuriate upon his stolen goods, 
exempted alike from penal infliction and social dishonor. He 
realizes that so low is the moral standard of the populace, and so 
high the respect paid to wealth, that his ill-gotten gain will secure 
to him greater respect than honest poverty. 

Let any one go into our court-rooms and watch the progress 
and termination of different cases as they come up for trial, and 
he will soon satisfy himself that our judiciary proceedings are but 
little if any more certain in their results than a game of chance ; 
while at the same time they are attended with ruinous expense. 
We daily submit to be oppressed, cheated, and robbed, rather than 
to appeal to this expensive and uncertain system of things. " The 
institution, which should succor the man who has fallen among 
thieves, turns him over to solicitors, barristers, and a legion of 
law-officers ; drains his purse for writs, briefs, affidavits, subpoenas, 
fees of all kinds, and expenses innumerable; involves him in the 

* u Thev who in the life of the body have contracted a habit of speaking one 
thing and thinking another, especially if under an appearance of friendship, they 
have sought to obtain the wealth of others, wander about in another life, and 
wheresoever they come they inquire whether they may abide there, saying, that 
they are poor ; and when they are received, they covet all that they see, through 
the lust that is in them : as soon as their evil nature is discovered, they are pun- 
ished and expelled, and sometimes are miserably racked, in different ways, accord- 
ing to the nature of the deceit and hypocrisy which they have contracted ; some as 
to their whole body, some as to the feet, some as to their loins, some as to the 
breast, some as to the head, and some only as to the region about the mouth : they 
are forced to reciprocal reverberations of a nature not to be described, consisting 
in vioient collisions of the parts, and thereby distractions, so that they fancy them- 
selves torn assunder into small pieces ; and to increase the pain there is induced a 
resisting effort. These punishments discerptions (pulling to pieces,) are of very 
various kinds, and are frequently repeated at intervals, until the sufferers are 
affected with fear and horror at the thought of deceiving by false speeches." — A. 
C., Vol. 1, p. 406. 



226 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

intricacies of common courts, chancery courts, suits, counter- 
suits, and appeals ; and often ruins where it should aid. * * * 
Suppose that external and internal protection had been the sole 
recognized function of the legislature. Is 'it conceivable that our 
administration of justice would have been as corrupt as now ? 
Can any one believe that had parliamentary elections " (with us 
legislature) " been habitually contested on questions of legal reform, 
our judicial system would still have been what Sir John Romilly 
calls it, ' a technical system invented for the creation of costs?' 
Does any one suppose that, if the efficient defence of person and 
property had been the constant subject-matter of hustings' pledges, 
we should yet be waylaid by a Chancery Court, which has now 
more than two hundred millions of property in its clutches, — 
which keeps suits pending fifty years, until all the funds are gone 
in fees, — which swallows in cost two millions annually."* How 
truly docs this reveal to us the terrible fact, that in Europe, as 
well as in America, " Judgment is turned away backward, justice 
standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity can- 
not enter."! 

The civil contest between the Northern and Southern States, 
extending over a period of four years, commencing in the early 
part of 1861, developed a large brood of swindlers, who operated 
upon a gigantic scale. Everywhere government agents sought to 
fill their own pockets by draining the public treasury. Nor were 
they at all scrupulous in the means employed. Contracts were 
bought and sold at a princely gain to the individual, and an enor- 
mous loss to the government, — the seller sharing in the profits of 
the purchaser. Ships, munitions of war, horses, bounties, food, 
clothing, and in fact, everything which pertains to a gigantic war, 
became the means and the occasion of a general fraud upon the 
government. To dismiss one set of swindlers was only to fatten 
another. To supply the enormous drain upon the treasury, its 
secretary was obliged to issue an unprecedented amount of cur- 
rency and government bonds, to maintain the expense of the army 
and navy. Others taking advantage of this inflation, commenced 
a speculation in gold, and as gold went up paper went down, and 
large fortunes were soon made by the temporary depreciation of 
the National currency. This gigantic fraud more than doubled 
the price of all commodities, and the government was obliged to 
purchase whatever it needed at these greatly enhanced rates. 

* Spencer's Essays, page 94. t Isa. 59 : 14. 



THE MORAL LAW. 227 

From this cause more than any other, its liabilities at the close of 
the war, amounted to some three hundred million dollars, a large 
portion of which the populace were called upon to pay by a direct 
taxation. 

For these evils there was no remedy. To employ other agents 
to ferret out and punish the miscreants was only to create a new 
catalogue of perjuries, treacheries and frauds. Almost every one 
seemed to feel that it was an age of general plunder and that each 
hac^a right to his share of the booty — a share limited only by his 
ability to obtain. Perfidies which ought to assign them to the prison 
and everlasting infamy secured to them the title of u shrewd mana- 
gers. " Farmers, mechanics and tradesmen entered into the same 
spirit of speculation and attempted on a small scale, what politicians 
and government agents did on a large one. Nothing being cre- 
ated, in the aggregate there was nothing gained ; the government 
was enormously embarrassed and the people obliged to foot the bill. 

This deplorable condition of things cannot always last. The 
latent principles of human rectitude will, sooner or later, arouse 
and throw off this moral disorder. There is already an element at 
work, silently, but none the less surely, which will eventually 
purge from every responsible position those who, from a moral 
unfitness are disqualified for their office. Their places will be filled 
by men who will wear the signet of heaven and who will establish 
such social regulations as will prove effectual in staying the hand 
of wickedness, by effectually arraigning every cheat and knave 
before a just tribunal. The saints shall yet bear rule and become 
the judges of the world,* and shall take the kingdom and possess it 
forever, even forever and ever.f Then they who turn aside the 
needy from judgment, and take away the right from the poor, and 
make widows their prey and rob the fatherless, J shall no longer fill 
offices of trust nor find shelter for their villainy. 

That iniquity when established by law is more conspicuous, that 
it tends to a more general corruption, and, by poisoning the streams 
of justice at their source, produces more extensive mischief than 
under any other circumstances, it is impossible to deny. In a 
country like ours, moreover, where the people have a voice in the 
government, the corruptions of their laws must first have inhered 
and become inveterate to their manners. No jurisprudential enact- 
ment, even if it could ever obtain an existence, that does not draw 
its sustenance from the people by having its roots in their moral 

*1 Cor. 6:2. t Dan. 7 : 18. Jlsa. 10:2. 



228 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

condition, could long survive its birth. Such corruptions as I have 
alluded to are, therefore, not so much an instance as a monument 
of a state or national degeneracy. The laws are an expression, 
though often much exaggerated, of the public morals. That our 
legislative bodies, both state and national, are made up chiefly of 
men wholly unqualified for their position, either by mental or moral 
unfitness, is a fact patent to all. 

It has been well remarked by Horace Greeley, whose thorough 
acquaintance with the affairs of this country, entitle his opinions 
to the fullest confidence, that, " It is a standing reproach to our 
institutions, that our public affairs are less and less controlled by 
those whom intelligent and cultivated foreigners justly regard as 
our ablest and wisest men. Notoriously, our citizens who have 
inherited wealth, and enriched their minds with the fruits of a 
ripe and varied culture — who have travelled widely, and patiently 
delved for wisdom in the mines of History — are not sought out 
and pressed to represent us in Congress or at the Courts of friendly 
Powers. Public stations are generally bestowed as prizes rather 
than accorded as trusts. No district feels honored or obliged by 
the service of its representative ; on the contrary, he is popularly 
regarded as the beneficiary ; and, should he hold for several terms, 
dozens are constantly grumbling that he has had enough, and 
ought to stand aside and give others a chance. Perhaps as able 
men, all things considered, are now in the public service as during 
Washington's Presidency ; but the kind of men whom he natur- 
ally called about him are not now conspicuous. Where one is 
sought by office and accepts it from a sense of duty, there are fifty 
in hot pursuit of place and power, and their eager, envious strife 
creates an atmosphere from which the sensitive and the modest 
instinctively recoil. It is not a senile lament, it is a sober, sor- 
rowful truth, that the standard of fitness and moral worth in 
public service has sensibly degenerated within the memory of men 
still living, and that Aaron Burr would now be far more likely 
than John Jay to be elected and reelected Governor of a great 
and powerful State. 

" One immediate and palpable cause of this degeneracy is the vile 
system of nomination by delegated conventions, or party caucuses, 
which has acquired a fatal currency among us, especially throughout 
the Free States. A more perfect contrivance for fostering mediocrity 
and stimulating all manner of corrupt bargaining and low intrigue 
was never conceived. The clever delegate goes into the convention 



THE MORAL LAW. 229 

with an eye secondarily to his party's advantage, but primarily to 
his own. Visions of prospective honor or profit as sheriff, county 
clerk, or some such functionary, have fired his brain, and he votes 
for the Congressional candidate of that wire-puller who promises 
most or whom he can trust farthest, in the way of ministering in 
turn to his fervid aspirations. And he is not long in learning the 
fatal lesson that the gratitude and sense of obligation of an aspirant 
of slender claims or qualifications are out of all proportion to those 
of one of eminent fitness. A Webster or Clay would hardly think 
of rewarding the partiality of the delegates who voted for or secured 
his nomination ; while Squibbs or Dullard, who knows that his 
only chance of ever obtaining distinction was created for him by 
the skillful bargaining and liberal promises of his caucus manager, 
will be very apt to remember his political creators, at least so long 
as he aspires or hopes to make further use of them. Under this 
crushing system, it is morally impossible that many such men as 
James Madison, Roger Sherman, John Marshall and Nathaniel 
Macon, should find their way into the House of Representatives, 
and quite certain that none such will long remain there."* 

It is a fearful commentary upon the public morals that an evil 
so obvious to all, and so pernicious in its effects, — one which 
strikes at the vitals of the republic, should be tolerated among a 
free and enlightened people. It adds another proof that " as the 
judge of the people is himself, so are his officers ; and what man- 
ner of man the ruler of the city is, such are all they that dwell 
therein."! History affords abundant proof that the Creator has 
so arranged human affairs that righteousness becomes the only 
bulwark of defence for either individuals or nations. Neither 
Scripture nor history give any warrant to affirm, that nations, as 
well as individuals, cannot deprive themselves of the benefits of 
Christianity, and leave both it and the civilization, of which it is 
the vital principle, behind. Pride, arrogance, frivolity, and injus- 
tice, which are the inevitable fruits of forgetting God, ate out 
the life of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome, and will continue, in 
all coming ages, to consume whomsoever shall become their victims. 
The most renowned and glorious cities of the ancient world, what 
are they now but headstones marking the graves of nations ? Not 
a single form of ancient civilization continues to exist upon the 
face of the earth. Palestine, once specially favored of God, is no 
more. Tyre and Ninevah but dimly exist even upon the pages of 

* New York Ledger, April 26, 1862. f Apocryphal Eccle. 10 : 2. 
N 



230 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

history. Athens, once lofty in genius and great in power, is 
entombed amid the ruins of the past. Colonies composed of a few 
individuals, upright and remembering God in their weakness, 
have, from time to time, struck off from their conceited, arrogant, 
and wicked oppressors, rapidly grown into powerful nations ; but 
when strong to become, in turn, self-reliant, corrupt, and forgetful 
of God, and so sink into decay. In the rise and fall of empires, 
the predominant lesson is, that righteousness, and righteousness 
alone, exalts a nation ; and that sin is a reproach to any people. 

The causes of social corruption and national decay, at first, are 
slow, and work unseen. They begin to operate by insensible 
degrees, and are perceived least by those on whom they operate in 
the most fatal manner. Morally, as physically, the disease, though 
long active, is not perceived until it ramifies all the parts and more 
rapidly commences its work of death. Let us look our own evils 
fairly in the face, however humiliating they may be. One of our 
chief sins was the barbarous institution of slavery. Many indi- 
viduals cried out against it, fearing that it would bring upon us the 
vengeance of heaven. Nationally, neither political party sought 
to put it away. It was the main tap-root of the Southern oligar- 
chy, but extended its fibers all through the North, and drew 
strength therefrom. The moral sense of the public had ebbed too 
low to perceive the terrible consequences which would inevitably 
grow out of so great an infringement of justice. Leading poli- 
ticians ignored a higher law than civil regulations. At last the 
crisis came, — a crisis which revealed the nature of the moral 
malady within. Demons, that would have disgraced the pit, were 
the fruits of this accursed Upas tree of bondage. Bewildered by 
its poisonous effects, its friends were made to strike the first blow 
at its life, — a blow by which they intended to extend slavery, and 
establish it upon a firmer basis ; but by which God intended its 
overthrow. Slavery was destroyed ; but the nation was saved. 
The national vitality was sufficiently strong to survive the ravages 
of this scourge ; but more than a million of able bodied men fell 
its victims, — thus forcing upon us another practical lesson that 
" sin when it is finished brings forth death." 

For great sins God requires the best offerings, such as are 
without blemish, whence they connect with the highest principles 
of the human constitution. The Divine Humanity was offered as 
a sacrifice for the sins of the world ; Abraham Lincoln for the 
national sins of the American people. Not that I would compare 



THE MORAL LAW. 231 

the two, but that the latter was the highest offering within the 
gift of the nation. Vast numbers of lesser victims connecting 
with the lower principles, had been sacrificed; but one, who, 
through Love to God and Mercy to Man, — connecting the Divine 
and the Human, — was needed. In the murdered President, the 
blended sympathies of heaven and a nation, met. Hell and Rebel- 
lion stood aghast at their own terrible work, and having spent 
their force through the blood of their victim, they could do no 
more. His death did more to stay the bloody contest than his life. 

The nation has not yet repented of this great sin ; neither did 
she put it away so much from a hatred of evil as a love of union — 
it was a war policy rather than a principle of equity. The hatred, 
however, will come from the mischief the sin has entailed upon us 
in the form of taxation ; for what we cannot be made to feel 
morally, we must physically. Men are compelled to suffer in that 
department of their nature where they are the most sensitive : and 
as our nation did not possess moral force enough to divorce itself 
from this iniquity, but sought to enrich itself by it, it is now 
obliged to pay a hundred fold for all it unjustly gained. The old 
and trite saying that " honesty is the best policy," is founded in 
the constitution of man ; hence, when viewed from a rational 
stand-point, even aside from any consideration of a future state of 
existence, injustice in whatever form, is the greatest conceivable 
folly. Add to this the weight of its eternal consequences, and we 
can account for its general prevalence only upon the ground of 
either extreme stupidity or moral insanity. 

A republican form of government and an ignorant or vicious 
populace are incompatible with each other. Self-discipline is the 
only proper basis of rule. As impulsive and indiscretionate youth 
need to be kept in subordination by better disciplined minds, so an 
unenlightened people need the restraint of authority, until they 
become capable of self-management. It is not in human nature to 
duly appreciate mental and moral qualities far in advance of our 
own condition. And in a republican form of government, every 
individual, however ignorant or vicious, is privileged to cast a vote 
for whomsoever he pleases ; and he is most likely to prefer such as 
will offer him the greatest personal inducement, without any regard 
to the fitness of the individual for the office. Wherever there are 
a sufficient number of the lower classes, ambitious demagogues will 
be sure, in some way, to avail themselves of their suffrage to mount 



232 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

into positions which they are unfitted to fill, nor to which they could 
ever attain by honorable means. 

Of this the State of Rhode Island furnishes a painful example. 
In the autumn of 1859 two ambitious men sought to attain to the 
chief magistracy of the State, whose laws they were grossly violat- 
ing. Both possessed large wealth, but neither could lay claim to 
any superior qualifications for the office. The suffrage of the 
rabble was thrown into market to provoke the highest bid, and it 
was estimated that a hundred thousand dollars was expended by 
the two rival candidates in the purchase of votes, at a cost varying 
from one to twenty-five dollars each. The following year the 
same disgraceful scene was reenacted with the same success. 

Let us trace the effects of such conduct upon their constituents. 
The state or national capitals are the chief reservoirs of the forces 
which control the public morals. From these issue not only the 
positive enactments which are to be regarded as the rules of action 
for the populace and to become the authority of subordinate offi- 
cers ; but also those spiritual forces which induced these enactments, 
and by which they are ever after accompanied. The representa- 
tives of the people are spiritually the representatives of those prin- 
ciples which were active in their election ; but they hold no direct 
connection through their constituents with any other, consequently 
are receptive from them of only such spiritual and moral forces as 
they become connected with through their suffrage. The quality 
of a representative's inspiration, in his official capacity, depends 
upon the moral quality with which he is connected in his constit- 
uents, for the connection between him and them becomes a binding 
principle between them on the plane it was taken ; and a man's 
inspirations cannot transcend the moral condition of his actual life ; 
whence it follows that if he is connected with the mercenary spirit 
of his constituents, he will be quite certain, though unconscious to 
himself, to re-act it upon them in whatever manner circumstances 
may permit. 

To barter the elective franchise, is evidently one of the meanest 
acts connected with a republican government. In every such 
instance the candidate for office becomes the means of arousing 
this latent meanness into an active form, and through him it 
becomes incorporated into the institutions of the state, affecting all 
its civil regulations, and flowing back upon the populace with the 
additional weight of authority in the form of positive enactments. 
How far the present wretched condition of things in reference to 



THE MORAL LAW. 233 

the enforcement of financial honesty is due to this cause it would 
be difficult to say. It is well known that the law for the collection 
of debt is practically abolished. A swindler may borrow money, 
or otherwise obtain credit, which he never intends to pay, without 
in the least jeopardizing his liberty, or subjecting himself to penal 
inflictions. 

Principles once sacrificed to selfishness, possess no resuscitating 
powers. To barter in the morals of others is to destroy our own. 
Every vote that was bought was a voluntary sacrifice of the moral 
principle of both the buyer and the seller, which, alike disqualfied 
them for the proper discharge of moral obligations ; for it is not 
enough that the letter of any duty is performed ; but it should also 
be accompanied by such a spirit as will impart to it an efficient and 
permanent life. For as has already been shown in the chapter on 
the "laws of connection, " the spirit by which an act is first 
induced will continue with it during its existence. Every pur- 
chased vote, therefore, becomes a death-warrant to the political 
morals of the individual, and connects him directly with a strata 
of evil corresponding with the motive by which he is governed. 
On either side, it is a barter of principle for interest, — a substitu- 
tion of the higher for the lower ; and unjust civil regulations are but 
the natural reaction of every wrong action. Moreover, the forces 
of these wrongs focalize in the candidate as both the exciting cause 
and the object to which they tend ; and as the quality of spiritual 
forces are governed by the physical conditions to which they are 
attracted, his moral perceptions are in perfect keeping with the 
motive which governs the conduct of his life. When this principle 
is better understood it will cease to be a wonder that political men 
so often disgrace their official position, not only by establishing 
unjust regulations, but also by themselves becoming the swindlers 
of the people. 

The man who attains official position upon any other basis than 
absolute right, becomes the representative of the lower rather 
than the higher elements of his constituents ; and these, focalizing 
themselves in him, become, unconscious to himself, the inspiring 
principle of all his official acts ; and failing to connect with the ele- 
ments of justice he becomes morally disqualified to discharge the 
obligations resting upon him. 

Take a single state as an illustration. The corruption of the 
legislative body of the State of New York has been already alluded 
to, (and I speak of this State because I am more personally 



234 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

acquainted with its civil code than any other.) Many of its laws 
are a shameful outrage upon every principle of justice, — laws which 
are purposely calculated to benefit the opulent and the swindler at 
the expense of the poor and the unsuspecting. Contrast, for 
example, the rental and credit system. A. hires a house of B. at 
a rent of $1,000 per annum, to be paid semi-annually, in advance. 
A. pays B. $495 towards the rent for the following six months, it 
being all the money he can raise at the time. B., the third day after 
pocketing this money, deliberately sets A.'s goods into the street 
and lets his house to another tenant, for which outrage A. has no 
redress. But, on the other hand, unknown to A., the house which 
he hires of B. may be owned by B.'s wife, or is in the hands of 
some other party in order to screen it from the indebtedness of B. 
Now B. borrows of A. $1,000, with which he purchases another 
house in his wife's or some other individual's name, turns around 
and expels A. from his premises, held in the name of another, and 
coolly says, I own no property in my own name, and you can col- 
lect no money. 

Again : a man marries a wife. At the close of the marriage 
ceremony, she may willfully abandon him forever, call upon him 
for support, and, at his death, come in possession of one-third, and 
if there is no other heir, of all his estate. However long-contin- 
ued the abandonment, he cannot free himself from her, unless, in 
addition to this outrage, he can prove her guilty of the crime ot 
adultery. She may live in such habitual intimacy with another, 
as to remove all doubt of her actual guilt ; still the necessary legal 
evidence may be wanting ; and he, in the meantime, is restrained, 
on the penalty of bigamy, from forming another alliance; and thus, 
without any special fault on his part, he is completely robbed of 
the highest blessing of life, while she is offered a reward for her 
perfidy. Is it possible to conceive of a greater injustice ? 

In the establishing of American Independence, men devoted 
their fortunes, their lives, and their honors, to the cause of their 
country ; every selfish consideration was willingly laid upon the 
altar of patriotism. Thus connected with the right, and actuated 
alone by philanthropic principles, the blessing of Heaven was the 
legitimate result. What they lacked in numbers and means, was 
more than made up by the forces which ever accompany the prin- 
ciple of justice ; and though they consisted of but few infant colo- 
nies, inhabiting a vast wilderness, swarming with brutal savages, 
who were armed against them, they successfully contended with 



THE MORAL LAW. 235 

one of the most powerful nations on earth. History no where 
furnishes a more striking example of the power of right over 
wrong, of Christian fortitude over selfish greed. They nobly 
showed themselves to be worthy of independence, and it was 
Divinely secured to them. But how basely has this been sacri- 
ficed by those to whom this rich legacy has been bequeathed. The 
suffrage our fathers so dearly bought is now openly and unblush- 
ingly bartered in the streets as an unholy thing. In Court and 
State, bribes are substituted for principle and justice. Money is 
more than manhood, greed more than equity. By this means, 
base, intriguing, dishonest and perfidious men are elevated to office, 
rob the public treasury, oppress the poor, and immolate the coun- 
trv to selfish greed. Congressional and legislative halls, which 
once resounded with eloquent appeals in behalf of the rights of 
man, and where the Author of the higher law was acknowledged 
as the supreme arbiter of nations, have now become the theatres 
for bribery, deception and wholesale swindling, whose actors are the 
devotees of the ale-house and the brothel, denying God and setting 
at defiance the supremacy of rectitude. 

With these facts before us, — facts which are so frequently 
reenacted all over the country, as to make up the general pro- 
gramme of political demagogues, can it be a matter of surprise that 
this interior rottenness broke out into the open rupture from which 
we have just emerged, and which, at one time, threatened the 
life of the nation. No healthy and lasting nationality can ever be 
maintained only as it is based upon equity. Sanguinary depletion 
may prolong its life by throwing off much of its accumulated evil; 
but it cannot restore it to a healthy action. Nationally, as indi- 
vidually, moral disorders, like physical, is death to the victim. 
God is the only life-giving and life-sustaining principle, and to 
separate from Him, is death. History can point to no people 
which, while strong in faith, in reverence, in truthfulness, in 
chastity, in frugality, in the virtues of the temple and of the 
heart, has sunk into atrophy and decline. So long as moral energy 
fails not, the life of the nation is secure. It is to righteousness, 
and to righteousness alone, that we must look for the protective 
and preserving principle. If Christian civilization can guarantee 
moral soundness to nations, then will nations cease to be subject to 
decay when they cease to be infidel in faith and in life, 

The Southern Confederacy sprang into existence based upon 
more unchristian principles, than any confederation which had 



236 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

ever preceded it in any age of the world, — a confederacy for the 
letting loose of every corrupt passion of depraved humanity. No 
people ever exhibited such terrible depravity, or ever witnessed 
greater anarchy, more shameless debaucher} r , or inhuman cruelty. 
The pages of history, like an index, will ever point to that four 
years of malignant starvation and cold-blooded murders as the 
culmination of all human wickedness. No people on earth except 
those whose natures had become calloused by a life-long degrada- 
tion in the charnel-house of American slavery could ever have 
practiced upon their own countrymen such a horrid system of 
persistent cruelty. Tens of thousands of prisoners of war, guilty of 
no offence but loyalty to their country, were stripped of their 
blankets, and the most of their clothing, and huddled, like cattle, 
into pens where they were obliged to burrow in the ground to 
screen themselves from the intense heat of a southern sun, or the 
cold of autumnal and winter storms ; thousands of sick and dying 
from exposure and starvation, without beds, without clothing, and 
without shelter, were taunted and jeered, even in their death 
struggles, by a fiendish populace ; scores of others were coolly 
shot down like wild beasts, while the masses were made to feed 
upon a starving pittance of unbolted corn-meal and corn-cobs and 
water, and to drink from stagnant pools filled with decaying car- 
casses. In addition to this, the cries of four millions of oppressed 
people were daily appealing to Heaven for a deliverance from the 
cruelty, injustice, and debaucheries of their oppressors. Bound, 
as these poor creatures were, by the fetters of tyranny, every tie 
of consanguinity and affection disregarded, their backs lacerated 
without mercy, enduring the injustice of unreqited toil, at the same 
time meekly bearing these sufferings and proving their fidelity to 
God and brotherhood to man, they constituted a moral force which 
no people, however numerous and determined against the right, 
could long resist. Had this eight millions of people, like Gideon 
of old, been based upon the right and sustained by the all-power- 
ful influence of Christian virtue, desperately determined and unit- 
ed as they were, abundantly armed, skillfully officered, and shield- 
ed behind their own fortifications, no weapon formed against them 
could ever have prospered. To-day, all over the Southern Con- 
federacy, their banners, the emblems of their separate nationality, 
would have been unfurled to the heavens, waving its benedictions 
upon them, happy in universal freedom and strong in God. But 
to expect success upon the basis which they commenced and con- 



THE MORAL LAW. 237 

tinned the war, clearly showed how little confidence they had in 
the final triumph of truth and justice over oppression and wrong. 

In continuation of what has already been said in reference to the 
importance of selecting high toned representatives, it is important 
here to add, that each individual connects with only such principles 
as correspond to his own condition. As sin and holiness are never 
allied to each other, so a bad man can never represent the better 
qualities of his constituents, neither can a good man represent the 
bad. By filling official positions with virtuous and honorable men, 
whatever evils there may be in the community, they are barred 
from finding any expression through the civil regulations, whence, 
so far from assuming an active form, as is too frequently the case, 
they are suppressed by the supremacy of rectitude in the officials 
who become the guardians of the public morals. And as " the fear 
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," so the suppression of evil 
is the commencement of a reformation. There is no denying the 
fact that nationally as individually, pernicious conduct magnifies 
itself and becomes potent in sweeping down every restraint in exact 
degree as it gains ascendency over healthy regulations. Hence, it 
is folly to expect public virtue so long as the civil officers are the 
leaders in pernicious practices. 

Standing as they do between the people and the execution of 
justice, they connect with the spiritual forces, on the one hand, and 
such elements of their constituents, on the other, as exactly corre- 
spond with their interior state, nor can they immediately connect 
with any other ; whence they become the direct agents in estab- 
lishing such social conditions as are in perfect keeping with the 
principles they represent. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madi- 
son, and Monroe, on the human side, connected with the higher 
principles of man ; on the spiritual, to a greater or less degree, with 
the Divine : so that through them descended a force all-powerful 
in its operations. In this fact, simple as it is when understood, lies 
the grand secret of our early national prosperity. The high order 
of wisdom of their administrations, sustained by a brotherhood of 
Patriots, was in virtue of this connection. They became the great 
avenues through which a protective and a morally potential sphere 
descended to the people, and ultimated in unparalleled national 
prosperity. They were noble men, men imbued with principles 
of morality and equity, and whatever may have been their minor 
faults, their ruling motives were right ; and only such can do a truly 
philanthropic work and bless their country, 



238 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Contrast these with the selfish and pusillanimous spirit of many 
of the later presidents and representatives. Steeped in iniquity, 
practiced in the vilest intrigues, false to every holy vow to God 
and to man, conscience consumed by the fires of an unholy greed, 
which cares all for self and nothing for the public interest, they 
become the mediums of hell, and, like the Bohon Upas, poison all 
they touch ; equity withers beneath their pestiferous breath ; virtue, 
finding no habitation among men, retires to its native heaven, while 
vice and injustice revel in high carnival amid the scenes of moral 
death. But this is not all, nor the worst. Better men, confident 
that success is not usually an accompaniment of merit, and unwill- 
ing to enter the arena of strife, intrigue and slander, which usually 
characterizes political caucuses, secular journals, and legislative 
bodies, they gladly leave the field to those who are the least fitted 
to fill the positions of state. Bribery, swindling, and unjust enact- 
ments make up a large share of all official operations. Crimes 
detected in one have their counterpart in another, so that, for in- 
dividual safety, they become mutual protectors of each other — 
w you make no complaint against me, and I will not against you." 

Lawyers, though they do not take State-pay, and are not nomi- 
nally Government officers, yet practically are members of the exe- 
cutive organization. They form an important part of the appa- 
ratus for the administration of justice. By the working of this 
apparatus they make their profits ; and their welfare depends on 
its being so worked as to bring them gain, rather than on its 
being so worked as to administer justice. A large and influential 
number of our representatives are members of the legal profession ; 
in fact, most of our laws are first drawn up by them and urged into 
actual enactments ; and it is not to be expected that, until they 
learn to love their neighbor as themselves, which there is no pro- 
bability of their soon doing, they will put forth any exertion to 
organize a simple, cheap, and prompt system of civil regulations. 
" And if, as all the world knows, the legal conscience is not of the 
tenderest, is it wise to depute lawyers to frame the laws which they 
will be concerned in carrying out ; and the carrying of which 
must effect their private incomes. Are barristers, who constantly 
take fees for what they do not perform, and attorneys, whose bills 
are so often exorbitant that a special office has bejm established for 
taxing them, — are these, of all others, to be trusted in a position 
which would be trying even to the most disinterested ?"* How 

* Spencer's Essays, p. 180. 



THE MORAL LAW. 239 

much more simple and explicit would our laws be, were they 
framed by men of keen moral perceptions, — men who seek to main- 
tain justice, regardless of self or favor. 

If we look into the history of the decline of the Roman Empire, 
from the accession of Augustus to that of Commodius, covering a 
period of some two hundred and ten years, we shall find a parallel 
to the moral state of the leading men of our time. " The cruelty, 
depravity, folly and enormous vices of the emperors generally, 
form a striking feature in this period. They seem to have been 
utterly lost to all sense of justice, honor and duty. Had they fol- 
lowed the examples of Julius or Augustus Caesar, the Romans 
would scarcely have had reason to regret the establishment of a 
form of government, which rescued them from deplorable wars and 
wasting revolutions, urged on by the rage of various powerful 
parties, succeeding one another. Indeed, it is surprising that the 
illustrious examples of those great men should be deserted imme- 
diately, and so soon forgotten ; and it can be accounted for in no 
other way, than by supposing that the reins of government fell 
into the weakest and vilest hands. When we consider the advan- 
tages the first emperors of Rome possessed, it can scarcely be 
doubted that many of them were the lowest, the most detestable 
and abandoned villains, that ever swayed a sceptre. Nor can we 
read the history of Rome, without wondering how it was possible 
for that once powerful and magnanimous people, to be so sunk and 
depraved, as to endure the tyranny of such monsters, instead of 
hurling them, with indignant scorn, from the throne they so deeply 
disgraced."* The same selfish and lustful rapacity, and wanton 
outrages against every principle of justice, which destroyed the lustre 
of Rome, and caused that once magnificent and powerful empire to 
decay, which blasted her virtue and happiness forever, which 
abandoned her to every evil and calamity, is now being fully reen- 
acted in our once prosperous and happy America. Nor can we 
reasonably expect that such appalling, perfidious conduct as char- 
acterizes the leading political men, this outrageous villainy of civil 
magistrates and subordinate officers, in this country, will meet with 
a more favorable result. Now, as then, wickedness is the irre- 
sistible agent of destruction. Now, as then, " The wages of sin is 
death." 

There is one, and only one, means of salvation left. High 
above all this meanness, there is a strata of moral and religious 
* Whelpley's Corapend. of History, p. 195. 



240 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

principle, which now has no representation in the civil regula- 
tions of this country. I have patiently, yet hopefully looked 
forward to the time when the present overflowing scourge of wick- 
edness shall so agitate and arouse these principles as to cause them 
to thunder forth their protest, and, backed up by a divine force, 
find their expression by seizing upon # the reins of government, and 
hurling into everlasting silence ana contempt, every destroyer of 
the public peace and virtue. There is yet in reserve a sufficient 
amount of moral force if cooperative and rightfully brought to 
bear, looking to God for His sustaining influence, to accomplish 
this now seemingly impossible work. To this end, all party feel- 
ing, whether political or ecclesiastical, should now and forever be 
laid aside, each forgetting and casting into the shade all geographi- 
cal divisions, recognizing neither whig nor democrat, North nor 
South, but only the right in contradistinction to the wrong, and 
seek to establish such institutions of justice and equity as shall 
secure the sanction and blessing of heaven.* 

Disguise the fact as we may, however willfully or ignorantly 
blind we may be to the great truth, we are now on. the very 
threshold of a crisis in the condition of the world, of which his- 
tory furnishes no parallel, but which prophecy for four thousand 
years has foretold. Mankind will, ere long, arouse to the realiza- 
tion of the fact that the past is but a poor criterion of the future ; 
and that to sustain the present corrupt institutions, without seeking 
to establish a higher order of things, is to be found fighting against 
God. " Tekel " is written upon Satan's banner, wherever unfurl- 
ed, and his present activity clearly shows that he is fully conscious 
of an approaching crisis — a crisis which will drive back his infer- 
nal host, and forever establish the standard of equity upon the 
earth. It requires no extraordinary perception to see that there is 
a strong probability, at least, that all of the present multiplied 
forms of evil are but the necessary prelude to the establishing of 
the reign of the Prince of Peace ; wherefore, the heaven and 
they that dwell therein may fitly rejoice, even while the earth and 
its inhabitants are suffering the woes which are the result of the 
devil's coming down into their midst, having great power, knowing 
that he hath but a short time.f 

*I use the terms justice and equity as designating both the positive and negative 
forces of a divine principle ; they are to the natural principle what goodness and 
truth are to the spiritual. Strictly speaking, justice is the infliction of deserved 
penalties ; whereas equity is the security against wrong. 

t Rev. 12:12. 



THE MORAL LAW. 241 

" Whoever considers the aspects of the times," says Dr. Robert 
Hall, u must be invincibly prejudiced not to discover the symptoms 
of a peculiar crisis, the distinguishing features of which are, the 
rapid subversion of human institutions and the advancement of the 
kingdom of God. The stone cut out of the mountain without hands 
has already fallen upon the image, and made it like the chaff of the 
summer threshing floor : the next event we are to look for in the 
order of Providence, is its enlarging itself till it becomes a great 
mountain and fills the whole earth. If there ever was a period 
when the propagation of the true religion might be resisted with 
impunity, that time is past, and the Master of the universe is now 
addressing the greatest potentates in the language of an ancient 
oracle : — Be wise now, ye kings, be instructed ye judges of the 
earth. Encompassed as we are with the awful tokens of a presid- 
ing and over-ruling Providence, dissolving the fabrics of human 
wisdom, extinguishing the most ancient dynasties, and tearing up 
kingdoms by the roots, it would be the height of infatuation any 
longer to oppose the reign of God, whose purposes will pursue 
their career in spite of the efforts of human policy, which must 
either yield their cooperation, or be broken by its force." 

Corrupt as the legislative and governmental proceedings are, the 
jurisprudential is, if possible, still more so, — owing partly to the 
perversity of the laws, arid partly to the depravity of judicial mag- 
trates ; and to these may be added the freedom with which wit- 
nesses frequently perjure themselves. Terrible as the consequences 
of perjury are, both in defeating the ends of justice and upon the 
individual, probably no crime is more frequently perpetrated. No 
tribunal, in this country, is now exempt from these outrages. 
Men and women go into court and coolly and deliberately swear 
to what they know to be utterly false ; and strange to say, there 
are those in New York and Brooklyn, and probably in other large 
cities, who make it a professional business, and their evidence can 
be procured for sums varying from five to thirty dollars, in almost 
any required case. The penal consequences of this fearful crime 
are practically abrogated. I was informed by the Assistant Dis- 
trict Attorney in New York, that though it had grown into an 
every day occurrence in that city, no attempts had been made at 
any time during the previous six years, to indict the offender. A 
paltry sum paid to one or more of these miscreants, with a generous 
donation to the judge, is a sufficient guarantee for the donator's 
success in his suit. The testimony of the perjured witness, though 



242 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

known to the judge, becomes a pretext for his decision. In fact, 
these witnesses are such a necessary part of the rascality carried 
on in that city, that the authorities have no disposition to interfere 
with their actions ; and it is very probable that a judgment could 
not be procured against them, unless it was for some personal 
animosity on the part of the Court. If a more wretched and 
deplorable state of things can exist, I have not the capacity to com- 
prehend it. 

In addition to these enormities, the bench not unfrequently pros- 
titutes the discretionary power reposed in it, to the vilest purposes. 
In order to gratify some selfish interest or personal - feeling, the 
Court will force interpretations upon the laws, wholly foreign to 
their obvious meaning ; and thus practically become the legislative 
as well as the judiciary agents. In this way it is easy to find a 
pretext for any decision the Court may wish to give. It is fre- 
quently the case that the Court more studiously seeks to so arrange 
matters as to gratify one of the parties, rather than to secure the 
ends of justice. And it is well known that an attorney who is a 
personal friend to the Court, can readily obtain favors for his client 
which he otherwise could not. To such an extent is this the case, 
that litigations are looked upon as a mere game of chance rather 
than as any certain means of securing equity. 

The effect of such conduct has been, on the one hand, to greatly 
augment the number of unjust suits brought by unprincipled par- 
ties ; and on the other, to deter from prosecuting just claims, and 
thus subject them to heavy losses ; or if they prosecute, they are 
forced to submit to an unreasonable expense, with no certainty of 
success, however evidently just their claim may be. In the city of 
New York, I once loaned a scoundrel, (at the time not knowing him 
to be such,) the sum of $ 700, the only business transaction I ever 
had with him. Failing to pay the loan, I sued his notes, and 
struggled in vain for more than two years to obtain a hearing of 
the case. In the meantime he transferred his property to his wife, 
failed twice in business, and as a judgment against him would have 
been utterly worthless, I abandoned the suit and lost the debt. 

Men are seldom so mentally obtuse as not to readily discover 
the right in any financial transaction between themselves and their 
neighbor, even though their selfishness may induce them to greatly 
overreach whenever an opportunity may offer. But if they did 
not meet with unwarrantable encouragement before legal tribunals, 
they would seldom be tempted to undertake an unjust litigation, 



THE MORAL LAW. 243 

as it would afford so little prospect of success. But in the present 
deplorable state of things they readily understand that the cer- 
tainty of success does not depend so much upon the right, as upon 
the influence brought to bear in their behalf, so that thev stand 
nearly an equal chance with their more honest antagonist. More- 
over, if they happen to possess a larger share of personal influence 
and pecuniary meanness, by which they can entice others to favor- 
ably consider them, they are almost certain of a final triumph, — 
even though there may not be the least moral basis upon which 
such a decision can be predicated. And not only so, if they 
finally fail to alter their unlawful purpose, they are at last com- 
pelled to do only what they ought to have done without coercion. 

" Who is there that has not submitted to injuries rather than to 
run the risk of heavy law costs ? Who is there that has not 
abandoned just claims rather than throw good money after bad ? 
Who is there that has not paid unjust demands rather than with- 
stand the threat of an action ? Who is there that cannot point to 
property that has been alienated from his family from lack of funds, 
or courage to fight for it ? Who is there that has not had a rela- 
tion ruined by a law-suit ? Who is there that does not know a 
lawyer who has grown rich on the hard earnings of the needy 
and the savings of the oppressed ? Who is there that cannot 
name a once wealthy man, who has been brought by legal iniqui- 
ties to the work-house, or the lunatic asylum ? Who is there that 
has not, within his own personal knowledge, evidence of the 
great extent to which the badness of our judicial system vitiates 
our whole social life ; renders almost every family poorer than it 
would otherwise be ; hampers almost every business transaction ; 
inflicts daily anxieties on every trader? And all this continual loss 
of property, time, temper, comfort, men quietly submit to from 
being absorbed in the pursuit of impracticable schemes which even- 
tually bring upon them other losses of kindred nature."* 

No one expects a blind man to have any accurate idea of the 
beauties of colors, or a deaf man of the harmony of sounds ; nor can 
we reasonably expect an habitually immoral man to have any very 
accurate idea of justice. Our natural senses are the mediums of 
our connection with external objects, and we necessarily fail to 
comprehend what they do not take immediate cognizance of. The 
moral consciousness is governed by the same law, — we must first 
become connected with a moral principle before we can comprehend 
^Herbert Spencer's Essays, p. 97. 



244 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

its nature and quality. We can come into possession of the higher 
principles, as into the natural, only by degrees, and through culti- 
vation,— a knowledge of their bearings and relation is the result of 
a rational comparison of one condition with another ; and true 
Rationality, by which this comparison is made, is formed only by 
the union of Goodness and Truth. I am aware that without 
Rationality proper, a man may have a philosophical understanding 
of the natural sciences and the relation of external objects ; but he 
cannot come into anything like a full comprehension of the prin- 
ciples of equity only through the marriage of the principles from 
which rationality is formed; for equity belongs to the Divine 
rather than to the Natural side of the question, and with which there 
is no direct connection only through divine qualities incorporated into 
the life of the individual. It is folly to expect to gather grapes of 
thorns, or figs of thistles ; but not more so than to expect an immoral 
man to have any high-toned perception of the principles of equity 
and justice. He may sometimes blunder upon the right, but it is 
only a blunder ; but is far more liable to be wrong than right, for 
he does not possess the internal conditions from which a rational 
decision can be made. 

Starting from this fundamental basis of principles, there will be no 
difficulty in understanding the cause of the deranged condition of 
judiciary proceedings. Most of the incumbents of the bench have 
attained to their position, not from any moral fitness for the office, 
but by their own intrigues, or that of their personal friends, who had 
some political end to accomplish. Let us take a casual survey of the 
judges of the Supreme Court of the city of New York, as an exam- 
ple. Probably a more heartlesSj shameless, unprincipled and 
debauched set of scoundrels never disgraced a court-room, even in 
the character of criminals, than has sat upon the bench in that city. 
One was driven from California by the vigilant committee for 
his infamous conduct ; another, for several years w r as engaged in 
a regular system of swindling the inmates of Tombs prison, obtain- 
ing from them all the money he could on the pretence of securing 
their release, but after filching what he denominated the necessary 
fees, abandoned them to their fate without further care or interest. 
One of the late judges, confessedly a spiritual medium, personally 
stated to me, that much of his time he was so completely under 
the influence of evil spirits, as to be unable to control his own 
actions. His mental and moral aberrations were far greater than 
his physical. And there is not a respectable lawyer in the county 









THE MORAL LAW. 245 

of New York, who will accuse me of doing him any injustice in 
saying that if we accede to his claim of mediumship, the spirit of the 
infamous George Jeffreys, once the chief justice of Chester, Eng- 
land, most probably was his presiding genii. Lost to every sense of 
justice or honor, unfeeling, selfish and cruel, he used his forensic 
skill and official position to aid him in perpetrating the blackest 
crimes. A veteran in frauds and the basest hypocrisy, betraying 
first and then persecuting his best friends, falsifying every promise 
and violating every moral obligation ; uttering the vilest aspersions 
against others to divert attention from his own wickedness ; ever 
making the fairest pretense a prelude to the darkest actions, are 
traits in the conduct of this shameless apostate, which entitles him 
to a fatal preeminence in guilt, and renders him an impersonation 
of villainy. I do not make this strong statement so much from 
any hear-say testimony, as from a personal acquaintance with this 
corrupt man. In virtue of the position he once occupied, I was 
inveigled into the bestowal of my confidence, both socially and 
pecuniarily, by which I learned his principles to be as base as ever 
actuated a human being. 

There are others of the same moral stamp, differing more in degree 
than in quality ; and to such an extent does this conviction prevail 
that there is scarcely a vestige of public confidence in the judiciary 
departments of that city remaining. High and low look upon the 
courts of New York as a shameful farce, where decisions are ped- 
dled out according to favor, or to the highest bidder. There is 
scarcely a meanness, however dark in its character or disastrous to 
society, to which some of these judges have not lent their aid. 

The effect of such conduct upon the soul in another life has been 
graphically set forth by that most remarkable of all modern seers, 
Emanuel Swedenborg. Whatever credence we may give to his 
claims of an introduction into the spiritual world, the principles 
here set forth have their basis in the constitution of man, hence we 
are not called upon to depend alone upon his assertion for the truth 
of the following statement : 

14 That man, when he passes out of the world, he has also all 
his memory, has been shown by many circumstances ; concerning 
which, many things worthy to be mentioned have been seen and 
heard, some of which I would relate in order. There were those 
who denied the crimes and villainies which they had perpetrated in 
the world ; wherefore, lest they should be believed innocent, all 
were disclosed, and were recounted from their memory, in order, 



246 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

from their earliest age to the latest ; they were principally adul- 
teries and whoredoms. There were some who had deceived others 
by wicked acts, and who had stolen ; their deceits and thefts were 
also enumerated in a series, many of which were known to scarcely 
any one in the world, except to themselves alone ; they also ac- 
knowledged them, because they were made manifest as in the 
light, with every thought, intention, delight, and fear, which 
then together agitated their minds. * 

" There were some who had accepted bribes, and had made gain 
of judgment ; they from their memory were in like manner ex- 
plored, and from it were recounted all things, from the first period 
of their office to the last ; every particular, as to quantity and 
quality, together with the time, the state of their mind, and inten- 
tion, all which things were at the same time brought to their recol- 
lection, and shown to their sight, which were more than several 
hundreds. This was done in some cases ; and, what is wonderful, 
their memorandum-books themselves, in which they had written 
such things, were opened and read before them from page to page. 

" There were some who had enticed virgins to acts of fornication, 
and who had violated chastity, and they were called to a similar 
judgment ; and every particular of their crimes was taken and re- 
cited from their memory ; the very faces of the virgins and women 
were also produced as present, with places, speeches, and purposes, 
and this as suddenly as when anything is presented to view : the 
manifestations continued sometimes for hours together. There 
was one who had esteemed backbiting others as nothing, and I 
heard his backbitings recounted in order, and defamations also, 
with the very words, the persons concerning whom and before 
whom ; all which were produced and presented to the life at the 
same time ; and yet every particular was studiously concealed by 
him when he lived in the world. 

" There was a certain one who had deprived a relation of his 
inheritance, under a fraudulent pretext ; he also was in like man- 
ner convicted and judged, and what is wonderful, the letters and 
notes which passed between them were read in my hearing, and 
it was said that there was not a word wanting. The same person, 
also, shortly before his death, clandestinely destroyed his neighbor 
by poison, which was disclosed in this manner. He appeared to 
dig a hole under his feet, from which a man came forth, as out of 
a sepulchre, and cried out to him, u What have you done to me?" 
Then everything was revealed, how the murderer talked with 



THE MORAL LAW. 247 

him in a friendly manner, and held out the cup, also what they 
thought before, and what afterwards came to pass ; which things 
being disclosed he was sent to hell. In a word, all evils, villainies, 
robberies, artifices, deceits, are manifested to every evil spirit, and 
brought forth from his very memory, and they are convicted ; nor 
is there any room given for denial, because all the circumstances 
appear together. I have heard also from the memory of a certain 
one, when it was seen and surveyed by the angels, what his thoughts 
had been within a month, one day after another, and this with- 
out fallacy, which were recalled as he himself was in them on those 
days. From these examples it may be manifest, that man carries 
along with him all his memory, and that there is nothing, however, 
concealed in the world, which is not manifested after death ; and 
this in company of several, according to the Lord's words : ' There 
is nothing covered that shall not be revealed ; neither hid that shall 
not be known. Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness 
shall be heard in the light ; and that which ye have spoken in the 
ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.'' "*f 

*Luke 12 : 2-3. t Heaven and hell, p. 302. 



CHAPTER VII. 



MARRIAGE 



Marriage is the union of such opposite principles of the same 
species as are calculated to produce new conditions or entities. It 
brings into activity a Creative force, which force originates alone 
in God. These, marriage and force, are inseparably connected, 
and alike pervade all mind and all matter ; and no procreation, 
either mental or physical, can, by any possibility, ever take place 
only as the result of the nuptial relation. 

In the Divine Attributes the consorts are Love and Wisdom, the 
immediate correlatives of which are Goodness and Truth ; and 
from this primeval union has germinated universal existence, — 
infinite heterogenity has sprung from infinite homogenity. These 
qualities, when applied to the Creator, embrace all that the human 
mind can conceive ; for they involve both Omnipotence and 
Omnipresence. 

We are accustomed to speak of God in the masculine gender ; but 
it is clearly evident that He combines within Himself both the mas- 
culine and feminine principles, and consequently is the first and only 
principle of life, the primary principle of all force, of all action, of 
all that is. Sum, Ipsum, Unicum, et Primum. In his Infinite 
Personality He is the first hypostatic degree ; Nature, in its Infinite 
Capacity, is the second hypostatic degree ; Evolution, in its Infinite 
Extent and Variety, is the third hypostatic degree. Thus, resolving 
the three hypostatic degrees, as to principle and force, into one 
Infinite Person, containing within Himself the properties of the 
Divine Father, the Divine Mother, and the Divine Proceeding, 
corresponding to the Scripture hypostasis of Father, Son, and 
Holy Spirit. God, the Father, is the eternal Masculine principle ; 
God, the Son, is the eternal Feminine principle ; God, the Holy 
Spirit, is the eternal Proceeding principle. These three principles 



MARRIAGE. 249 

bear exactly the same relation to the Infinite Personality that God, 
Nature, and Variety do to the Universal Whole. The soul, or 
life, is derived from the Infinite Masculine, or Wisdom principle ; 
and is nourished by the Infinite Feminine, or Love principle ; and 
is multiplied by the Infinite Copulative, or Propagative principle. 
These constitute Will, Direction, and Use, a trinity of principles 
in a unity of person. The first established truth of creation is, 
that every individual entity is developed from the simple into the 
complex ; every variety is developed from the one into the many. 

Light, heat, electricity, magnetism, affinity, attraction, and gravi- 
tation, in all their variety, are the conservated properties of the 
same Infinite Personality, ever changing their mode of manifesta- 
tion according to the medium through which they become appa- 
rent. Hence, there is one all-pervading principle, which shapes 
and determines the destiny of all things. Here we have a univer- 
sality of laiv, springing from a single universal cause. 

The Universe having been created by Jehovah out of His Infin- 
ite Love by His Infinite Wisdom, contains, as a whole and in all 
its parts, in a finite degree, the properties of its Infinite Progeni- 
tor. With these properties God is eternally and inseparably con- 
nected, and through them perpetuates the Creative Forces into 
successive orders of re-creations, and maintains the order of uni- 
versal existence ; so that Nature, in its every department, is recep- 
tive of and dependent upon the life from God. The Infinity of 
Divine Life constitutes universal force, consequently there is an 
unceasing tendency to an evolution from the simple to the com- 
plex — from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous. And as God's 
sphere pervades all matter, no human or finite ingenuity can ever 
destroy its reproductive tendency ; for its relation to God can 
never be intercepted. 

Marriage, then, has its origin in the Supreme Being, and I shall 
treat of it under two general heads, 

I. As a Principle. 

II. As an Institution. 



250 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 

Wisdom comprises all Knowledge — the perfect adaptation of 
means to ends. 

Love comprises all Goodness, delights to promote the happiness 
of others and constitutes supreme excellence. 

These two principles embody the Divine Essence and comprise 
all that we can conceive of, as pertaining to God, and their union 
is what I shall term a Divine Marriage. 

Omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence appertain to the 
Divine Wisdom derived from the Divine Love. By his omnipre- 
sence he perceives all things ; by his omniscience he provides all 
things ; and by his omnipotence he operates all things. 

Infinity, immensity, and eternity appertain to the Divine Love, 
and these are the correlatives of omnipotence, omniscience and 
omnipresence, and make one with them in effecting uses. What 
Wisdom perceives and devises, Love extends and perpetuates. 

Hence, Love and Wisdom, united in use, constitute the Creator 
from whom Creation had its birth. He does not create entities as 
man builds machinery ; but they spring forth as the legitimate 
sequence of the marriage of His Infinite Love with His Infinite 
Wisdom. They are derived from principles subjective rather than 
objective to Himself, and partake of the characteristics and qualities 
of their Progenitor. These entities, in their turn, continually 
tend to effect still other uses by reproducing themselves; but this 
tendency is the result of an influx from their Creator. 

God is the only source of life ; and fecundation is the result of 
the conjoint action of his sphere with the copulative entities : and 
this takes place in an orderly manner through all the successive 
gradations until it reaches man — the plane of moral accountability. 
The influx adapts itself to the condition of the media through 
which it operates ; each producing its own generic species. Hence 
everything receives life from God according to its form : every 
tree, shrub, herb, and blade of grass, receives influx of heat and 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 251 

light — the representatives and mediums of Love and Wisdom — 
according to its form ; thus the influx is received not only by the 
good and useful plants, but also by the bad and noxious. This 
influx does not change the form and quality of the recipients, but 
the recipients change the effects of the influx in themselves. The 
life of God, like the brilliancy of the sun, is present in all its full- 
ness with every condition of existence ; with the deadly night- 
shade as much as with the rose ; with the evil as well as with the 
good. 

Life is the inmost activity of Love and Wisdom which are in 
God and which are God. It is an immutable, eternal, uncreated 
and uncreatable principle, and the only essential force in the realm 
of either Mind or Matter. Creation, in its every department, is 
finite and consequently has no inherent life within itself; but is 
made receptive of Life. This receptivity is in virtue of a reproduc- 
tive principle emplanted by the Creator in each individual entity. 
Into this principle, life continually flows, as light into the eye, or 
sound into the ear. God does not transfuse or transcribe Himself 
into man, and thereby make man to consist of a part of Himself,* 
as many who pretend to worship the god within have foolishly 
supposed ; but He exists as the only Self-Existent and Eternal 
Life, whose sphere rather than Himself per se, continually radiates, 
as a sun, into universal creation, which radiation is nowhere inter- 
cepted only by the moral atmosphere of accountable beings. The 
mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms receive this life mediately 
through the planetary systems. Man is subject to the same law 
of receptivity so far as his physical being is concerned ; but moral- 
ly he is immediately receptive of Life from God, instead of me- 
diately through Nature. 

Love and Wisdom ; Light and Heat ; Life and Activity, con- 
sidered in themselves ; and what is Infinite ; are uncreated and 
uncreatable principles. They belong alone to Him who is the 
Almighty. But the organs receptive of these are creatable and are 
created. Though Light is not creatable, the eye, its recipient 
organ, is created. Activity which causes such vibrations of the 

* Probably there is no heresy more injurious to the soul than the belief that 
poor, sin-degraded and unregenerated " man is a part of God." Such sophistry 
can be accepted only by those whose spiritual state excludes every ray of divine 
light from their perceptions — it is the last dregs of human depravity, eagerly sipped 
by only those who are already cast into outer darkness. No one who has the 
least perception of his own unhallowed condition, will ever for a moment imagine 
himself to be a part of God ; but will feel to cry out " O wretched man that I am, 
who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death !" 



252 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

atmosphere as produce sound, — being but the transmutation of a 
conservative force, — is uncreatable ; but the ear, its recipient, is cre- 
ated. Heat, the correlative of Light, and the primary^rinciple of 
all activity throughout the three kingdoms of nature, is also uncre- 
atable ; but the sense of touch by which it is made manifest, and all 
substances which it pervades, are created. So, in a like manner, 
man has been created with faculties that are receptive of the eternal 
and self-existent principles of Love and Wisdom, so that he is capa- 
ble of exercising these in the degree of his receptivity of them. 
From these issue the principles of Life ; hence, man really and truly 
lives only in the degree in which he incorporates the Divine Love 
and Wisdom into himself. 

On the material side of existence, the planetary systems are the 
primeval mediums of conduction of all these principles to the ter- 
restrial entities which exist upon them. But to this end the planets 
must sustain a specific and definite relation, a relation of Activity 
and Passivity ; of Faculty and Capacity, one to the other. Like 
individuals, one must be in a condition to receive what the other 
imparts, so that while one sustains a positive relation, its correla- 
tive equally sustains a negative relation. This law is universal, 
whether pertaining to worlds or the particles of which they are 
composed. 

There are but two subordinate universal principles in existence, 
namely : Spirit and Matter ; and these have their origin in the 
primeval universal cause, and sustain a correlative, or cooposite 
relation to each other ; one being generative and the other fecund- 
dative ; so that by their cooperation they effect uses. But each of 
these contains within itself both a positive and a negative phase of 
action. This positive and negative action of principles and entities, 
is necessary in order to maintain their individual existence, and to 
keep up the chain of connection between discrete degrees, while, 
at the same time, it forms the conditions of receptivity of the influ- 
ent forces from the Creator. But they are incapable of giving 
birth to new individual entities without the cooperation of other 
entities differing from themselves in sex, each deriving its force 
from the discrete degree next above itself. 

I here use the terms Spirit and Matter in contradistinction to 
God, the Infinite Personality from whom both are derived. There 
are evidently three discrete degrees, namely : Divine, Spirit and 
Matter. The first correlatives are infinite Love and infinite Wis- 
dom, which constitutes the infinite Personality or Divine; the 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 253 

second is a positive and negative phase of Spirit which constitutes 
a universal Spiritual existence in contradistinction to the Divine 
existence ; third, a positive and negative phase of Matter which 
constitutes a universal Material existence in contradistinction to 
Spiritual existence. These are the three hypostatic degrees of the 
Divine Infinitude. The correlation, therefore, is not God and 
Nature, as has been too frequently supposed ; but, first, God and 
Spirit ; and second, Spirit and Matter, so that the Eternal Femi- 
ninity is not found in the natural substances of the universe, but 
in the second hypostatic degree, or Spirit. These three degrees 
correspond to the three degrees of the Divine Being ; first, Jeho- 
vah, or, the I am that I am, the Divine Self-Existent ; second, the 
Lord, the Infinite Divine Spirituality ; third, Jesus, the Infinite 
Divine Humanity. It is not to be supposed that these constitute 
three Infinite personalities ; but the three hypostatic degrees of the 
the same personality — a trinity of degrees in a unity of person; 
hence "the Alpha and Omega;" the most Interior and the 
Ultimate. 

It is evident, so far as I can comprehend this infinite subject, 
that previous to the Lord's assumption of the Human in the world, 
there were the two prior degrees actually and the third degree in 
potency ; but that the highest medium (man) of its orderly descent 
into the world becoming corrupted, subverted this potency from 
its orderly ultimate use ; so that it became necessary for Him to 
assume the Natural degree as He had the Spiritual, through which 
He now holds an immediate connection with the ultimate plane of 
existence. This third hypostatic, or natural degree, as soon as it 
became divested of the hereditary evils derived from the mother, 
became as Infinite and Divine as the other two, and consequently 
one with them. There can be no denying the fact that the Divine 
which ever filled all space, penetrated to the ultimates of Nature ; 
but, before the assumption of the Human, the Divine influx into the 
Natural degree was mediate through the Spiritual ; but after the 
assumption immediate from Himself. 

The necessity of His assuming the Human will be readily un- 
derstood by keeping in view the fact, that the Natural degree is the 
complex and basis of the Spiritual and the Divine. The three 
degrees may be designated, purpose, cause, and effect. Without 
the purpose there could be no cause, and all the purpose is con- 
tained within the cause ; and without the cause there could be no 
effect ; and all the cause, containing all of the purpose, is in the 

33 



254 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

effect. The Will is in the Understanding, the Understanding in 
the Effect ; hence, the effect is both the canse and purpose in ulti- 
mates. If, for example, I erect an edifice, the Will operates through 
the Understanding ; the Understanding through the Bodily func- 
tions, and the edifice is the ultimate effect. The operations of the 
body, therefore, contain all of the Understanding and the Will. 
Hence, we see that in the Divine Humanity dwells all the fullness 
of the Godhead bodily. Moreover, whatever pertains to the Divine 
Love and Wisdom are homogeneous and concordant ; and as love 
ever seeks, through wisdom, to gratify its affections by promoting 
the happiness of its object, it necessarily exists in use — love being 
the purpose, wisdom the instrumental cause, and use the effect. 
Hence, so far as there were any intercepting conditions between 
the Divine and the human, the chain of connection was severed be- 
tween the purpose and the use, so that the Divine Love failed to 
possess an ultimate basis of operation. 

Man, being an image of God, is created upon the same principle, 
differing only as the finite differs from the Infinite. Whatever is 
done in the body is done from the Will by the Thought, and as 
these act in concert with each other, all there is of the will and 
thought must necessarily exist in the action. True, they do not 
appear, for we can view them only in their ultimates ; and in this 
view they are only actions and motions. But follow them a pos- 
teriori, and we will trace every act through the understanding to 
the will, as the moving cause from which it springs. The will and 
the understanding, therefore, culminate in the act, so that the 
ultimate effect contains all there is in the causes. This will be well 
illustrated by observing the phenomenon of the three discrete de- 
grees of the physical organs. The mind, according to the degree 
of its excitement, acts upon the central functions ; the central 
functions upon the nervous forces ; the nervous forces upon the 
muscular fibres. The whole of the central and nervous action cul- 
minates in the muscle where it becomes effective in whatever use 
the mind designates. But without the muscular systems, the ner- 
vous forces would become powerless in any effective action ; and 
without these two the mind could hold no connection whatever 
with external objects. Hence we may reasonably conclude that 
the inhabitants of the spiritual world, being on the intermediate 
rather than the ultimate plane, are quite as ignorant of the affairs 
of this world as we are of that, only so far as they can enter into 
sympathetic relation with minds yet connected with a material 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 255 

structure. But it is impossible for the Divine Mind, as well as for 
angelic spirits, to enter into a sympathetic relation with evil loves; 
whence, so far as man is in evil, he obstructs the orderly descent 
of the Divine forces through him into the ultimate plane of life. 
Since, however, the Lord's incarnation, He maintains the order of 
the physical universe, not mediately through angels and thence 
through man as previous to man's apostacy, but immediately through 
His own Divine Humanity. The forces of universal creation 
whether belonging to the plane of mind or matter, are but the 
continuation of the forces springing from the marriage of Infinite 
Love with Infinite Wisdom. The observable phenomena of these 
forces are ever changing, according to the medium through which 
they operate; but it is one and the same principle underlying 
every condition of existence. Here we come down to the funda- 
mental basis of the law of conservation of forces, or what Herbert 
Spencer is pleased to denominate, persistent force. 

If these views be well founded, of which it appears to me there 
can be no reasonable doubt, I have now clearly shown that there 
is a marriage of the primary principles of Love and Wisdom from 
which creation had its birth, and that the marriage of these princi- 
ples constitutes one Infinite Personality who holds an immediate 
correlation to Spirit ; and that Spirit holds an immediate correla- 
tion to Matter. I shall now proceed to consider the correlation 
of one body of matter to that of another. 

Space, however unlimited in extent, is evidently filled with 
revolving worlds, all of which sustain a definite relation to each 
other. Out of this relation grows a reciprocal dependence no less 
than that which exists between one part of an individual organic 
structure and another, — a relation so intimate, that it is not unrea- 
sonable to suppose that all the parts, though as unlimited in their 
extent as is God in His power, are but one infinite unit, each 
individual orb, like the various functions of the human body, fill- 
ing its assigned office in maintaining the integrity of the whole. 
As in the microcosm, particle is wedded to particle, so in the 
macrocosm, world is wedded to world : and as a single plant may 
multiply its species through which it extends its forces into all 
coming generations, until its numbers increase beyond computa- 
tion, each plant bearing a definite relation to its primary progeni- 
tor; so with the planets, though infinite in number, and filling 
space without bounds, each still holds a definite relation to the chief 
pivotal orb round which it and all the innumerable concentric circles 



256 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

revolve. And as the inhabitants of the earth are divided and sub- 
divided into nationalities, provinces, and family series, so likewise 
are these innumerable worlds divided and subdivided into galaxies, 
constellations, and systems. The component parts of these group- 
ings, though individual entities, like links in a chain, are not inde- 
pendent entities, but they form one consecutive and dependent 
whole. 

The first phenomenon that presents itself is the annual revolu- 
tion of one planet round another, and these conjointly round the 
third, and so on. And here the question very naturally arises, 
What induces this fidelity of one orb to another ? Why not rove 
at random through space, ever jostling each other in their unregu- 
lated wanderings ? What induced this systematic order of family 
groupings and regulated movements ? How comes it that they are 
arranged in the order we find them, and age after age maintaining 
this arrangement with an exactness that knows no variation ? 
Newton would answer that there is a Law of Attraction by which 
bodies tend towards each other, and resist any counteracting ten- 
dency. But this does not answer these questions ; nor did Newton 
ever discover the fundamental principles by which the planets are 
regulated, or that cause bodies to tend toward each other. He 
did discover that there is a certain gravitative force connected with 
all material substances, and that this force is in proportion to the 
quantity of matter, and inversely to the square of the distance ; 
but evidently had no conception in what this force consists, nor 
how it is induced. He has bequeathed to us no evidence that he 
had any comprehension of the great truth, that all Natural laws 
are but the culmination of Spiritual forces, hence, phenomenal 
rather than fundamental. Important as his discoveries are to the 
world, it must be conceded that the discovery of primary causes is 
of much more importance than that of proximate effects. 

Force is a principle, and, being a principle, it is indestructible. 
It is a well-ascertained fact that the force expended in moving any 
ponderable substance, is but the transference of a definite amount 
of force from one body to another. The various adjectives usually 
applied to the term u force," such as moving force, muscular force, 
gravitative force, electrical force, horse power, steam power or 
force, &c, but express the different media through which it operates. 

Now, then, what is this indestructible force, and from whence 
is it derived ? It is not gravitation, for gravitation is the result of 
the force, and so we may say of every other mode of force. If I 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 257 

strike my hands together they produce a certain amount of noise ; 
the noise is not the concussion, but result of the concussion. And 
as noise cannot be produced without the disturbance of two oppo- 
site conditions, so there can be no force without the action of two 
opposite principles. Gravitation, therefore, as well as every other 
mode of force, is a force resulting from a compound action. Now, 
I again inquire, what induces this action ? I answer, that it is a 
Conjugial Principle, originating in the Creator, and which per- 
vades universal creation. This implies the union of two principles 
totally different in character and properties, but perfectly adapted 
to each other. Here we have the primary law of the correlation 
and conservation of forces, and to which no department of nature, 
either in the realm of mind or matter, offers any exceptions ; it 
extends from the primary Cause to the ultimate effect, governing 
alike the most ponderable objects that move in space, and the most 
minute particles of which they are composed. 

Every cause must necessarily spring from some active force, and 
as force is indestructible, (for it is the result of Divine principles 
pervading the material universe,) though convertible in its mode 
of action, every effect is but the metamorphosis, and conservation 
of an existing force. The force being thus stored up in the effect, 
the effect, in its turn, becomes the proximate cause of another 
effect on an inferior plane, or in a new individual entity, and this 
the cause of still another effect, and so on, varying its mode of 
action on each subordinate plane between the primary cause and 
ultimate effect. Again : no effect can transcend its proximate 
cause, nor subsist a moment longer than the cause continues ; for, 
on the cessation of the cause the effect ceases. An effect, there- 
fore, properly considered, is but the continuation of the cause, but 
a cause so extrinsically clothed as may serve to enable it to act, in 
its turn, as a cause in a subordinate sphere. Moreover, every 
cause is the positive force of its immediate effect, hence its direct- 
ing principles, so that the Primary Cause is the directing force of 
all the subordinate causes. Cause and effect are but other terms 
to express the dynamic and static properties of existence. With- 
out a dynamic or positive principle, there could be no begetting 
cause ; and without the static or negative principle, there could be 
no receptive cause. The cooperation of these two produces another 
cause, (alter ego,~) which, in its turn, becomes the proximate cause 
of still another, and so on, ad infinitum. The begetting cause 
transmits the Creative forces which produce causes and effects 



258 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

from beginning to end through intermediates ; the receptive cause 
gives these forces individuality by giving them form, — the form 
being the capacity or static principle containing the faculty or 
dynamic force. 

Keeping these fundamental principles in view, it will be easy to 
understand how it is that the primary planets are the dynamic 
forces of the secondary ; and the secondary the static correlative 
of the primary, — the forces of the primary culminating in fruits 
through the secondary, as the male through the female. If we 
take our own planet as an example of the rest, we know that they 
are surrounded by an atmosphere containing carbonic acid, which 
furnishes nutriment to the plants which cover their surface. The 
plant separates the carbon from the oxygen, and stores up the for- 
mer, letting the latter go free. But both light and heat by which 
this is effected, are in consequence of the influent forces derived 
from the primary planets. By no special force, different in quality 
from other forces, do plants exercise this power. This potential 
energy is derived solely from the relation of the two orbs, for it is 
at the expense of both light and heat that the decomposition of 
the carbonic acid is effected. Without the influence of the pri- 
mary planet the reduction cannot take place, for an amount of light 
and heat are consumed exactly equivalent to the molecular work 
accomplished. 

" But we cannot stop at vegetable life ; for this is the source, 
mediate or immediate, of all animal life. In the animal body, 
vegetable substances are brought again into contact with their 
beloved oxygen, and they burn within us, as a fire burns in a 
grate. This is the source of all animal power : and the forces in 
play are the same, in kind, as those which operate in inorganic 
nature. In the plant the clock is wound up, in the animal it runs 
down. In the plant the atoms are separated, in the animal they 
re-combine. And as surely as the force which moves a clock's 
hands, is derived from the arm which winds up the clock, so surely 
is all terrestrial power drawn from the Sun. Leaving out of 
account the eruptions of volcanoes, and the ebb and flow of tides, 
every mechanical action on the Earth's surface, every manifesta- 
tion of power, organic and inorganic, vital and physical, is pro- 
duced by the Sun."* 

However true this may be in a relative sense, it is not true in 
an absolute sense ; for the Earth, as well as the Sun, possesses 

* Tyndall on Heat as a Motive Power, p. 446. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 259 

elements peculiar to itself, which, by the correlation of the two 
planets, are absorbent of the Sun's influence, which quickens the 
latent energies of the Earth into life and activity ; it is only by 
the reciprocal influence of the two orbs that light and heat are 
induced within our own atmosphere. 

" There yet remains," says Professor Wilson, " one outstanding 
physical force of whose nature and relation we are as yet entirely 
ignorant — gravitation. All attempts to bring it under the law of 
the correlation and conservation of forces have thus far failed." 

Dr. Faraday says : "I believe I represent the received idea of 
the gravitating force aright in saying that it is a simple attractive 
force exerted betiveen any two or all the particles or masses of mat- 
ter, at every sensible distance, but with a strength varying inversely 
as the square of the distance. The usual idea of force implies 
direct action at a distance. This idea of gravity appears to me to 
ignore entirely the principle of the conservation of forces ; and by 
the terms of its definition, if taken in an absolute sense, ' varying 
inversely as the square of the distance,' to be in direct opposition 
to it, and it becomes my duty to point out where this contradiction 
occurs, and to use it in illustration of the principle of conservation. 
Assume two particles of matter, A and B, in free space, and a 
force in each or in both by which they gravitate toward each other, 
the force being unalterable for an unchanging distance, but vary- 
ing inversely as the square of the distance when the latter varies. 
Then, at the distance of ten, the force may be estimated as one ; 
whilst at the distance of one, that is one-tenth of the former, the 
force will be one hundred ; and if we suppose an elastic spring to 
be introduced between the two as a measure of the attractive force, 
the power comprising it will be a hundred times as much in the 
latter case as in the former. But from whence can this enormous 
increase of power come ? If we say that it is the character of this 
force, and content ourselves with that as a sufficient answer, then 
it appears to me that we admit a creation of power and that to an 
enormous amount ; yet, by a change of condition, so small and 
simple as to fail in leading the least instructed mind to think that 
it can be sufficient cause, we should admit a result which would 
equal the highest act our minds can appreciate of the working in- 
finite power upon matter ; we should let loose the highest law in 
physical science which our faculties permit us to perceive, namely, 
the conservation of forces. Suppose the two particles, A and B, 
removed back to the greater distance of ten, then the force of 



260 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

attraction would be only a hundredth part of that they previously 
possessed ; this, according to the statement that the force varies 
inversely as the square of the distance would double the strangeness 
of the above results ; it would be an annihilation of force — an effect 
equal in its infinity and its consequences with creation, and only 
within the power of Him who has created. * * * * Let us 
consider the two particles, A and B, as attracting each other by 
the force of gravitation, under another view. According to the 
definition, the force depends upon both particles, and if the par- 
ticle A or B were by itself, it could not gravitate, that is, it could 
have no attraction, no force of gravity. Supposing A to exist in 
that isolated state and without gravitating force, and then B placed 
in relation to it, gravitation comes on, as is supposed, on the part 
of both. Now, without trying to imagine how B, which had no 
gravitating force, can raise up gravitating force in A ; and how A, 
equally without force beforehand can raise up force in B, still, to 
imagine it as a fact done, is to admit a creation of force in both 
particles ; and so to bring ourselves within the impossible conse- 
quences which have been already referred to."* 

The leading idea set forth in this volume, is the sexuality of 
universal existence, and that force wherever found is the result of 
conjugal affinity. If this hypothesis be well founded, it necessarily 
follows that the difference between the manifestation of the forces 
on the plane of mind, and that on the plane of matter, is only the 
difference in discrete degrees, or the medium through which the 
force is exhibited, while the principle remains the same. 

Now let us change Dr. Faraday's A. and B. to John and Ann. 
But as mind acts through memory, regardless of space, it will be 
necessary to suppose them to be so constituted that when out 
of sight they are also out of mind. Each contains certain proper- 
ties or forces, or, more properly speaking, are receptacles of forces, 
but which are inactive while they are separated one from the 
other. But no sooner do they approach within the radius of each 
other, than their spheres produce a reciprocal action. John's 
sphere quickens the energies of Ann, and induces in her a condi- 
tion of receptivity which did not before exist ; and Ann's sphere 
stimulates and excites John in such a manner that he is impelled 
to approach her, and the attraction increases in the ratio as they 
near each other, until a complete conjunction is sought and obtain- 
ed, and the copulation of the two forces culminates in giving exist- 

* Correlation and Conservation of Forces, p. 364. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 261 

ence to a third person. Whence is the force, which produces this 
result, derived ? Are these parties creative ? No, but they, like 
all the rest of creation, are endowed with a conjugal principle 
which is receptive of a creative force. This force emanates from 
the Divine Being, and is resident in the germinating properties of 
the universal spiritual sphere which pervades all matter : and John 
and Ann had new conditions excited within them in virtue of their 
constitutional relation to each other ; the intensity of the negative 
action being in exact ratio to that of the positive, and vice versa. 
The same law, differing only in its mode of action, governs the 
relations of matter. 

I believe inertia to be the actual condition, and perhaps the only 
condition of matter abstractly considered ; but that it is pervious 
to and inseparably connected with spirit by which it is pervaded, 
and that it is the conjoint action of the two which gives it its 
mechanical and cohesive force. The cause, therefore, of gravity, 
is not resident in the particles of matter merely, but pervades 
them and all space, — matter being the ultimate medium for the 
manifestation of spiritual forces as the body is of the mind. That 
there is some principle connected with matter from which it derives 
its active qualities is a belief sustained by the most able philoso- 
phers. Newton says : " That gravity should be innate, inherent, 
and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at 
a distance, through a vacuum, without the mediation of any thing 
else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed 
from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity that I believe 
no man who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty of 
thinking, can fall into. Gravity must be caused by an agent, 
acting constantly according to certain laws ; but whether this 
agent is material or immaterial I have left to the consideration of 
my reader."* Dr. Faraday is of the same opinion. 

Notwithstanding the opinions of these men, there is no denying 
the fact that the great mistake of philosophers has been in attribu- 
ting to matter an inherent rather than an influent force. Judging 
from phenomena rather than causes, they have ascribed to different 
kinds of matter, a specific amount of mechanical and gravitative 
force without properly considering from whence this force is 
derived, or under what circumstances it may be augmented. Now, 
as economy characterizes every department of creation, the first 
fundamental law is, that the intensity of forces is always in the 

* See Newton's Third Letter to Bently. 

34 



262 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

ratio of the use to be effected. Keeping this law in view, we are 
able to understand why the sexual principles from which the 
greatest use is derived, (for all things are sexual,) becomes more 
intensely active in the ratio as objects approach each other. The 
sexual sphere produces a reciprocal action which continually tends 
to augment the forces of each according to their respective rela- 
tions, in order to effect a condition which absolutely exists in 
neither while insulated or removed from the sphere of the other. 
And, as matter offers no exception to this rule, nor is endowed 
with contemplative qualities by which it can project its sphere to 
other objects, regardless of space, the force of gravitation neces- 
sarily becomes inverse to the square of the distance. 

Dr. Faraday says that : u As to the gravitating force, I do not 
presume to say that I have the least idea of what cocurs in two 
particles, when their power of mutually approaching each other is 
changed by their being placed at different distances ; but I have a 
strong conviction, through the influence on my mind of the doc- 
trine of conservation, that there is a change; and that the phe- 
nomena resulting from the change will probably appear some day 
as the result of careful research."* This change I believe to be 
no other than the copulative tendency of connate forces, ever 
operating through inert matter to effect uses ; and the strength 
of this tendency is as the relative distance between the particles. 

It appears to me that nothing can be more evident to the rational 
mind, than that there are prolific properties connected with every 
department of universal creation ; and that Matter as the ultimate 
plane of existence, becomes re-productive in virtue of the impreg- 
nating influence of Spirit, by which it is pervaded. In fact, I can 
discover no other means by which it can become receptive of the 
influences from the Creator ; nor do I believe that there is any 
other principle through which He immediately operates upon 
Mind and Matter. The attractive force, therefore, between the 
particles of matter is in virtue of the spirit which pervades them ; 
and the spirit, in its turn, is immediately receptive of the attrac- 
tive forces of the Creator, so that the force of gravitation is really 
the operations of the Creative sphere, mediately through Spirit, in 
the ultimate plane of existence. It is in virtue of this Creative 
sphere, and which can operate in Nature only through the Prolific 
principle, that the energies of Creation, by which matter constantly 
seeks to attain to a higher condition, is maintained. I cannot see 

* Correlation and Conservation of Forces, p. 382. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 263 

that the laws of Persistent force are any less operative here than 
elsewhere; for the expenditure of cohesive and gravitative force 
ultimately re-appears in the products of the soil with no less cer- 
tainty than the transmutation of water into vapor by the action of 
the Sun's rays. There is but one force, nor in the very nature of 
things can be but one, and that is God. He is all and in all. It 
commences in the Divine ; it terminates in the Human. Begin 
at what link in the chain we may and reason a priori or a posteriori, 
and we find the circle complete in the two. 

Trusting that I have now relieved Dr. Faraday from his philo- 
sophical dilemma, I shall proceed to consider the nature, source, and 
correlation of Light and Heat. In this we enter upon a phase of 
philosophy hitherto inexplicable. No department of nature is less 
understood ; none has provoked more un philosophical explanations. 
These explanations have shown how utterly futile are all human 
speculations upon the more spiritual principles of nature without 
God — the folly of attempting to account for effects independent of 
the universal Cause. 

That the reader may understand how little is known of the real 
nature of these elements, I shall first make a few extracts from the 
conflicting theories of the most popular authors. 

Light. 

Newton was of the opinion that Light is the effect of luminous 
particles which dart from the surface of bodies in all directions, and 
that the solar Light which we receive departs from the Sun and 
travels to the earth. Pythagoras, Plato, Lucippus, Epicurus > and 
Brewster were advocates of the same theory. But this involves 
the objection of the necessity of a continuous supply to the Sun of 
some kind of material fuel to maintain the continuous supply of the 
light-producing or lucifer matter, continually emitted from that 
orb. The objections to this Radiatory theory are so numerous 
that the greater number of philosophers have abandoned it as alto- 
gether untenable. 

Huyghens, Descartes, Sir John Herschel, Euler, Young, Arago, 
Franklin, and others, adopted the Undulatory theory, assuming 
that Light is caused by an infinitely elastic ether, diffused through 
all space. This ether existing everywhere, is excited into waves, or 
vibrations, by the luminous body. 

Mr. Whewell observes that this undulating theory leaves the 
whole subjects of colors, both in opaque and transparent bodies, 



264 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

involved in profound obscurity. It does not serve to explain how 
the chemical changes in bodies are permanently produced by the 
action of Light in inorganic, and more especially in organic matter, 
as essential to the existence of the vital principle. " The waves 
of all known elastic fluids extend around the corners of interposed 
bodies, and through crooked tubes. The undulations of the air, 
in the science of acoustics, are familiarly caused to become bended 
out of the straight lines in the crooked tubes of various musical 
instruments, such as the French horn, bugles, &c, and with pecu- 
liarly delightful effects on the sense of hearing. The undulations 
of Light, on the contrary, are not propagated through crooked tubes 
at all." 

Sir John Herschel, though one of the most able advocates of the 
theory of undulations, says : " We are called upon for acts of faith, 
and certain admissions to be made at every step, in this exposition 
of Light." 

Berzelius advanced a theory of Light and Heat producible by 
combustion, founded on the supposition that " these phenomena 
are observable as the consequence of the transference of electricity 
between the atoms combining together. But Professor Faraday 
remarks " this transference of electricity may be classed with the 
great mass of doubtful knowledge." " Light was regarded, by 
what was termed the corpuscular theory, as being in itself matter 
or a specific fluid emanating from luminous bodies, and producing 
the effects of sensation by impinging on the retina. This theory 
gave way to the undulatory one, which is generally adopted in the 
present day, and which regards Light as resulting from the undula- 
tion of a specific fluid to which the name of ether has been given, 
which hypothetic fluid is supposed to pervade the universe, and to 
penetrate the pores of all bodies."* 

Seat. 

The subject of Heat is involved in no less obscurity than that of 
Light ; and philosophers have as widely differed in regard to its 
materiality or immateriality and its peculiar functions and nature. 
I am not aware that any one has ever pretended to define its nature 
or property, but only to demonstrate its observable phenomenon. 

" The earlier writers on chemistry," says Professor J. W. 
Draper, " suppose that if Light and Heat are not the same prin- 
ciple, they are mutually convertible ; that when the rays of Light 
* Prof. Grove. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 265 

fall on any object and warm it, they do so because they become 
extinguished and changed into heat. But there are many facts 
which mitigate against this doctrine. A vessel containing hot 
water radiates Heat, and that Heat is totally invisible in a dark 
room, nor can it be made to assume the luminous condition, even 
though concentrated by large concave mirrors. Experiments have 
been made to determine whether in the moonbeams there are any 
calorific rays. The most delicate thermometers, aided by concave 
mirrors, have hitherto failed in detecting the minutest trace. In 
this instance, therefore, we have Light existing without Heat ; in 
the former, Heat existing without Light. In addition, the relation 
of transparency for these two agents are not the same. A piece 
of smoky quartz, or dark-colored mica, of such a degree of opacity 
as scarcely to admit a ray of Light to pass, is freely traversed by 
radiant Heat. The theory of exchanges of Heat, comprehending 
an explanation of a great number of the phenomena we ordinarily 
witness, depends upon the following principles : It assumes, first, 
that all bodies, no matter what their temperature may be, are con- 
stantly radiating Heat at all times ; second, that the rate of radia- 
tion depends on the temperature, increasing as the temperature 
rises, and diminishing as it declines. Thus the various objects 
around us are constantly emitting caloric : the warm bodies to the 
cold, and the cold ones to the warm. A mass of snow and a red- 
hot cannon-ball respectively give off Heat, the ball emitting it in 
great quantities, and the snow in less. And even when adjacent 
bodies have reached the same thermometric points, they still con- 
tinue to exchange Heat with one another." 

Graham, in his Treatise on Chemisty, remarks : u our knowl- 
edge of Heat is limited to the different effects which it produces 
upon bodies, and the mode of its transmission ; and these subjects 
may be considered without reference to anything of the nature of 
this agent." These effects he considers under five different heads, 
viz. : Expansion, specific heat, communication of heat by conduction 
and radiation, liquif action and vaporization. Dr. Turner, in his 
" Elements of Chemistry," after discarding the phlogistic theory 
of Heat, introduced by Stahl, and also that advanced by Lavoizier, 
remarks : " that it is easier to perceive the fallacies of one doctrine, 
than to substitute an other which shall be faultless ; and it appears 
to me that chemists must, for the present, be satisfied with the 
simple statement, that energetic chemical action does itself give 
rise to an increased temperature." He further adds that: "when 



266 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Heat is accumulated to a certain extent in bodies, they are said to 
shine or become incandescent. On this impartant property depends 
all our methods of artificial illumination." Dr. Bache, the Amer- 
ican editor of this treatise on chemistry, adds in an explanetory 
note, u that the force which tends to bring the elementary mole- 
cules into closer proximity, is derived from an innate property of 
ponderable matter ; while the force which tends to separate them 
is dependent on the operation of a distinct principle, Caloric, the 
particles of which, being self-repellent, force the ponderable par- 
ticles asunder. In order to explain why the caloric remains 
attached to the ponderable molecules, it is necessary to suppose 
that its particles, though self-repellent, have an attraction for pon- 
derable matter." u Our knowledge of heat," says J. G. Hecks, 
"is limited almost entirely to its effects; of its true nature we. 
know almost nothing. It cannot lie concealed in the interior of 
bodies as in this case the refinements of modes, or chemical analy- 
sis would obtain some indication of its presence. The term Heat, 
then is to be understood as expressing an effect." 

Muller, in his Treatise on Physics, makes the following state- 
ment : " The forces which are continuously acting between the 
adjacent atoms or molecules of bodies, are termed molecular forces. 
The force which holds together the particles of a solid body, is 
termed the force of cohesion, which we assume to be called forth 
by a mutual attraction of atoms. Now, if atoms mutually attract 
each other, and Heat be deemed material, it is not easy to under- 
stand how this latter kind of atoms can mutually repel each other; 
therefore, to explain this repulsion, as observable in gases, we 
assume that there is another and an opposite force, which we term 
the force of expansion. 

Metcalfe in his publication on Heat arrives at the following con- 
clusions : " By the affinity of ponderable matter for caloric, its 
atoms are approximated and held together ; by the elastic self- 
repelling property of caloric, it separates the atoms from each 
other, as in gasefaction, explosion, and all decompositions. * * * 
This doctrine throws a clear and full light on all the powers, mo- 
tions, combinations and decompositions of the elements by which 
we are surrounded and sustained ; and when perfectly unfolded in 
all its relations, will be found to furnish a simple and rational inter- 
pretation of the book of nature." Again, at page 176 he observes, 
" by the attraction of caloric for ponderable matter, it unites and 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 267 

holds together all things ; by its self-repulsive agency it separates 
and expands all things." 

It is extremely difficult to find any great amount of philosophy 
in such muddled statements ; for he fails to observe the proper 
distinction between cause and effect, and makes caloric both the 
attractive and repelling agent. 

Allen in his treatise on the " Philosophy of the Mechanics of 
Nature," says : " That the sun is the great source of both Heat and 
Light to terrestrial matter, is a fact too obvious to require detailed 
proofs. But the fact of the continuous propagation of the electro- 
dynamic excitation of the sun between groupings of atoms in the 
specific form of Heat, is not so palpable to common observation. 
As the propagation of mechanical impulses in this modified form, 
constitutes the most important physical power available by man, 
this subject is to be regarded with special interest in tracing out 
the Sources of Natural Motive Power." 

These are some of the conflicting views of the most learned 
philosophers, in different ages of the world, upon these intricate 
subjects ; and they appear to be no nearer settling these questions 
now than ages ago. It will be seen that the advocates of neither 
of these theories give us any information as to what Light and 
Seat are, but only attempt to prove their idea of their phenomena 
— thus leaving the whole subject in quite as much mystery as they 
found it. 

Mr. Allen, in stating that the Sun is the only source of both 
light and heat, has expressed the opinion of all, so far as I am 
acquainted, who have ever written upon this subject. Situated as 
we are, within an atmosphere beyond which we cannot pass, an 
atmosphere illuminated by the Sun's rays, and warmed by forces 
which ever accompany them, and without comprehending the 
nature of the fundamental principles of either, it is but natural 
that appearances rather than facts, should form the basis of our 
conclusions. A much more irrational opinion universally prevailed 
until the early part of the sixteenth century, namely : that the 
Sun, accompanied by our solar system, and the whole steller 
universe, performed daily revolutions round the little planet upon 
which we happen to have our existence. So firmly fixed was this 
opinion in the public mind, that it was considered sacrilegious to 
attempt to oppose it. 

In this general opinion, that the Sun, abstractly, is the source 
of both Light and Heat, I shall respectfully decline to concur. 



268 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Unable, as I am, to discover any philosophical basis for this uni- 
versally accepted hypothesis, I cannot but regard it as one having 
its origin in appearance rather than fact, — an hypothesis which 
has provoked more irrational speculations than any other which 
has ever claimed the attention of man. As in the one case, phi- 
losophers believed the earth to be the centre of the universe, an 
opinion founded upon the apparent movement of the heavens, and 
framed all their conclusions accordingly ; so in the other, they have 
believed the Sun to be the only heating and illuminating body of 
our solar system, an opinion founded upon its apparent brilliancy 
and warmth ; and hence, have endeavored to account- for the im- 
mense expenditure of caloric necessary to cover a radius of 2,850,- 
000,000 miles, which is the distance of Neptune from the Sun 
from which it receives its light and heat. This inconceivable radi- 
us being only one-half of the diameter of the orbit of Neptune, 
the supposed sensible calorific influence of the Sun must cover a 
circle of more than 4,700,000,000 miles in diameter. The most 
intense heat which it is possible for man to create would hold 
scarcely any more comparison to the infinite heat which would be 
necessary to cover so vast an area, than a moment of time to an 
eternity. It would be beyond all human calculation, all human 
conception. The heat necessary to maintain vegetation upon a 
planet half the distance of Neptune from the Sun, would be incon- 
ceivably hotter at the distance of the Earth from the Sun, than 
any artificial heat which man is capable of producing ; so that the 
Earth, and the planets revolving within its orbit, would be dis- 
persed by the intense heat of the Sun's rays. 

But leave out of our calculation the more distant orbs, and let 
us consider the amount of heat necessary to supply the Earth, 
which is comparatively in the neighborhood of the Sun. Sir John 
Herschel invented an instrument which he called an actinometer, 
but which is essentially a thermometer with a large cylindrical 
bulb filled with a blue liquid, which, being acted upon by the 
Sun's rays, its expansion is measured by a graduating scale. 
With this instrument he calculated that the amount of heat re- 
ceived from the Sun at the sea level, to be competent to melt 
0'00754 of an inch of ice per minute ; while according to M. 
Pouillet, the quantity is 0'00703 of an inch. The mean of the 
determination would be 0'00728 which probably is not far from 
the truth, which would make nearly half an inch per hour, or about 
one foot per day. Hence, according to this calculation, the amount 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 269 

of heat received from the Sun would be sufficient to melt annually, 
at the surface of the Earth, a crust of ice about 365 feet thick, pro- 
vided the Earth were to stop in its diurnal motion, so that any given 
spot should continually receive the Sun's meridian brilliancy. And 
as it makes no difference in regard to the expenditure of the heat 
of the Sun whether the Earth is in a condition to receive it or not, 
this is, upon the correctness of this hypothesis, the actual degree of 
intensity of the heat of the Sun, at a distance of 95 millions of miles 
from its surface, extending alike in every direction, thus filling a 
radius of more than 190,000,000 of miles in diameter. In addition 
to this, it is conceded that not much more than one-half of the 
quantity of heat reaches the solid surface of our globe as a consider- 
able portion if it is absorbed by our atmosphere. 

" Knowing thus the annual receipt of the Earth," says Professor 
John Tyndall, " we can calculate the entire quantity of heat emit- 
ted by the Sun in a year. Conceive a hollow sphere to surround 
the Sun, its centre being the Sun's centre, and its surface at the 
distance of the Earth from the Sun. The section of the Earth 
cut by this surface, is to the whole area of the hollow sphere as 
1 : 2,300,000,000 ; hence, the quantity of solar heat intercepted 
by the Earth is only 2^ 00x00,000 of the total radiation. The heat 
emitted by the Sun, if used to melt a stratum of ice applied to the 
Sun's surface, would liquify the ice at the rate of two thousand 
four hundred feet an hour. It would boil, per hour, seven hun- 
dred thousand millions of cubic miles of ice-cold water. Expressed 
in another form, the heat given out by the Sun, per hour, is equal 
to that which would be generated by the combustion of a layer of 
solid coal, ten feet thick, entirely surrounding the Sun ; hence, 
the heat emitted in a year is equal to that which would be pro- 
duced by the combustion of a layer of coal seventeen miles in 
thickness. * * * * Were the Sun a solid block of coal, and 
were it allowed a sufficient supply of oxygen, to enable it to burn 
at the rate necessary to produce the observed emission, it would 
be utterly consumed in five thousand years. On the other hand, 
to imagine it a body originally endowed with a store of heat, — a 
hot globe now cooling, — necessitates the ascription to it of quali- 
ties, wholly different from those possessed by terrestrial matter. 
If we knew the specific heat of the Sun, we could calculate its 
rate of cooling. Assuming this to be the same as that of water, — 
the terrestrial substance which possesses the highest specific 

heat, — at its present rate of emission, the entire mass of the Sun 
35 



270 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

would cool down 15,000° Fahrenheit, in five thousand years. In 
short, if the Sun be formed of matter like our own, some means 
must exist of restoring to him his wasted power."* 

This calculation is founded upon the hypothesis that the Sun's 
heat would annually liquify a strata of ice one hundred feet thick, 
which is not one-third the actuality according to Herschel's and 
Pouillet's calculations. The measurement should be the amount 
of heat under a tropical Sun at its clearest noon-day brilliancy : for 
it is not to be supposed that the Earth's relative position to the 
Sun, makes any difference in the amount of heat actually emitted 
from its surface. 

This enormous expenditure of caloric is believed to be compen- 
sated by the fall of asteroids into an " unbroken ocean of fiery 
fluid matter," which composes the Sun's surface. The credit of 
originating this preposterous idea, is due to J. R. Mayer, a Ger- 
man physician, but which has been warmly accepted by Prof. 
Tyndall, Prof. Thomson, Kirchhoff, and others. This Meteoric 
theory, as it is called, of the Sun's heat, supposes the solar space 
to be peopled with ponderable objects, which are unceasingly roll- 
ing towards the Sun, and rapidly plunging into its fiery abyss in 
order to produce light and heat throughout the solar system. It 
is believed by Mayer, that cosmical masses stream from all sides 
in immense numbers towards the Sun, and that they become more 
and more crowded together as they approach thereto. " This 
conjecture at once suggests itself that the zodiacal light, the nebu- 
lous light of vast dimensions, which surrounds the Sun, owes its 
origin to such closely -packed asteroids. However it may be, this 
much is certain, that this phenomenon is caused by matter, which 
moves according to the same law as the planets around the Sun, 
and it consequently follows that the whole mass which originates 
the zodiacal light is continually approaching the Sun and falling 
into it."f 

Professor Tyndall freely endorses this hypothesis, and says that 
" the zodiacal light may owe its existence to these crowed meteoric 
masses. However this may be, it is at least proved that this lumi- 
nous phenomenon arises from matter which circulates in obedience 
to planetary laws ; the entire mass constituting the zodiacal light 
must be constantly approaching, and incessantly raining its sub- 
stance down upon the Sun. "J 

* Heat, as a Mode of Motion, Lecture 12. f Celestial Dynamics. J Heat as a 
Mode of Motion. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 271 

"It is easy to calculate both the maximum and the minimum 
velocity, imparted by the sun's attraction to an asteroid circulating 
around him ; the maximum is generated when the body approaches 
the sun from an infinite distance ; the entire pull of the sun being 
then expanded upon it ; the minimum is that velocity which would 
barely enable the body to revolve around the sun close to his sur- 
face. The final velocity of the former, just before striking the 
sun, would be 390 miles a second, that of the latter 276 miles a 
second. The asteriod, on striking the sun with the former velo- 
city, would develope more than 9,000 times the amount of the heat 
generated by the combustion of an equal asteriod of solid coal ; (?) 
while the shock, in the latter case, would generate heat equally to 
that of combustion of upwards of 4,000 such asteriods. (?) It 
matters not, therefore, whether the substance falling to the sun be 
combustible or not ; their being combustible would not add sensi- 
bly to the tremendous heat produced by their mechanical colli- 
sion."* " The heat of rotation of the sun and planets, taken all 
together, would cover the solar emission for 134 years ; while the 
heat of gravitation (that produced by falling into the sun) would 
cover the emission for 45,589 years. There is nothing hypotheti- 
cal in these results ; they follow directly and necessarily from the 
application of the mechanical equivalent of heat to cosmical 
masses."! 

These men seem to forget that they are treating of eternal prin- 
ciples established by an Infinite Being who is not limited in His 
resources nor in His ability of adapting means to ends. They evi- 
dently calculate that God, like human beings, is compelled, as the 
only alternative, to make the most of what He has ; and after hav- 
ing created the solar system, He is obliged to consume one por- 
tion in order to furnish light and heat for the remainder. It would 
be impossible to conceive of a more irrational and un philosophical 
idea ; in fact, it is the culmination of a baseless sophistry rather 
than a religious philosophy . For, though our solar system were as 
compact with ponderable bodies' as the unsubdued forest with trees, 
the time would come when they would all be consumed, their 
ashes augmenting the bulk of the Sun, which orb itself, no longer 
having smaller ones to feed upon, would become a huge, charred 
and opaque body without association and without use. God does 
not work in such a foolish manner, but has so arranged the order 
of creation that each discrete degree supplies its own needs. 
* Heat as a Mode of Motion, p. 437 ; t page 443. 



272 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

I would not have given this hypothesis so much attention were 
it not advocated by men standing high in scientific literature — men 
from whom lesser minds shape their thoughts and form their opin- 
ions. It only shows what erroneous conclusions we are liable to 
form in reasoning (a posteriori) from effect to cause ; from matter 
to spirit ; from nature to God. 

In treating of Natural Laws there are two principles which can 
ever be relied upon ; namely, Economy and Perpetuity. No mat- 
ter can be destroyed, or rendered useless in the economy of God ; 
no force can ever be changed only in its mode of action, which 
change is due to the agent through which it operates rather than 
the force itself; so that the same principle performs its use upon 
every plane of existence extending from the highest to the lowest. 
The principles ever actuating the Eternal I Am are the principles 
which actuate the Angels ; the principles which actuate the Angels 
are the principles which control the Planetary systems throughout 
the sidereal heavens ; and the principles which control the planets 
are the principles which induce every ■ phenomena thereon. The 
mode of action alone changes. Hence the law of correlation and 
conservation of forces, is founded upon eternal and immutable prin- 
ciples^ principles no less fixed than He from whom they sprang. 
God and Nature are but one consecutive whole, not in identity, but' 
in force. As the forces of the male fructify in and culminate 
through the female ; so the Divine forces fructify in and culminate 
through matter. Wherever there is action it is but the culmina- 
tion of one and the same force — the force of the Creator operating 
through His creation, who is all and in all. 

Hence, strictly speaking, force is the action of a creative power, 
which springs from the relation of two diverse principles ; one 
furnishing the incentive to effort, the other devising the means of 
accomplishing the end. These are indissolubly wedded, and give 
rise to every form of existence. The ultimate effects of force 
become apparent only through material media, which media 
assume an infinite variety of forms. These change the mode of 
force into a no less variety of phenomena, without in the least 
changing the nature of the force itself. Whatever diversified sen- 
timents, for example, my pen may be made to express, the force 
that wields it is the same, changed only in its mode of action by 
the different influences, for the time, brought to bear upon it. 
Again : heat in steam presents a very different phenomenon from 
what it does in the granite, though we recognize it as the same. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 273 

With this fundamental basis of operation, I shall strike out upon 
a new hypothesis, which, I believe, will more rationally account 
for the universal phenomena of Nature than any hitherto presented 
for public consideration. In doing this, I shall reason a priori, 
rather than a posteriori, as is usually the case in all philosophical 
investigations. 

The first fundamental Law of universal existence is, a Recipro- 
cal Action. This law has been variously designated in the 
scientific and social world, such as positive and negative-, faculty 
and capacity; action and r e- action ; male and female ; primary 
and secondary ; &c. These imply conditions which are diverse 
from, but still immediately connected with each other ; conditions 
which are mutually dependent, so that the action of one induces 
the reaction of the other. Each being able to perform what the 
other cannot, — thus constituting a coopposite force. 

Another important principle here to be kept in view, in order for a 
proper understanding of the subject upon which we are now to enter, 
is the law of Succession, — one thing producing another, as in the 
case of re-production ; and one acting upon another, as in the case 
of social life. In both instances, influences are propagated or trans- 
mitted from one to another, through an endless series of succes- 
sions, modified only by the conditions, circumstances, or relations, 
of the individual entity through which they operate. Though the 
forces, abstractly, of primary and secondary causes are the same, 
it will be necessary to keep up the distinction between the primary 
and secondary agents through which the forces operate. It should 
be remembered that it is the proximate entity which, in its turn, 
becomes the positive agent to the next subordinate entity, as in 
the case of parent and child, so that what is negative to the pre- 
ceding, is positive to the succeeding, and so on through a series of 
successions. 

Now, then, with this structure of fundamental principles, we 
may safely launch out upon the boundless ocean of the stellar uni- 
verse, and with an unerring certainty trace the Divine forces from 
system to system, and from orb to orb through the endless series 
of succession until they culminate in Man as the finale of creation. 
But it being impossible for the finite to comprehend the infinite, let 
us limit our research to a definite portion of the universe ; for in so 
doing we shall learn the nature of the laws equally as well as in 
the whole. To this end we will imagine that our solar system is 
revolving round a still more central Sun, to which our Sun is but 



274 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

a satellite, and consequently a negative orb. In such a case its 
inhabitants (and it appears to me to be the height of absurdity to 
suppose that so vast an orb is uninhabited, for this would be an 
extreme violation of every known principle of the Divine economy,) 
would have precisely the same phenomenon presented to them that 
we have to us, differing only in periodic time. They would appa- 
rently derive their light and heat from their Sun as we do from 
ours ; and we mav imagine them as wondering how the illumin- 
ating and calorific forces of so vast an orb, and at such an immense 
distance, to which our Sun really holds no comparison, is main- 
tained. The planetary universe is too vast for us to reasonably 
ignore the idea of its being divided into family groupings, each of 
which contains its central Sun, by whose influence its satellites are 
warmed and illuminated ; nor are we to suppose that each of these 
are vast bodies of liquid fire, which are daily consuming millions 
of lesser orbs, to maintain their heat and brilliancy. 

What, then, is the source of Heat and Light, and how are they 
produced ? To answer these questions, it will be necessary to ask 
the third, viz. : What are Heat and Light ? — a question, I believe, 
which has never been answered. 

The whole tendency of the philosophy of the present age merges 
into one grand conclusion, namely, the conservation and correla- 
tion of forces ; that force, like matter, can neither be created nor 
destroyed, but only made to change its mode of action. I have 
stated in a previous paragraph, that every cause must necessarily 
spring from some active force, and, as force is indestructible, 
though convertible in its mode of action, every effect is but the 
metamorphosis and conservation of an existing force. The force 
being thus stored up in the effect, the effect in its turn becomes 
the proximate cause of another effect on an inferior plane, or in a 
new individual entity ; and this the cause of still another effect, 
and so on, varying its mode of action on each subordinate plane 
between the primary cause and ultimate effect. I have also stated 
that the primary planets are the dynamic forces of the secondaries ; 
and that the secondary are the static correlatives of the primaries — 
the forces of the primary culminating through the secondary, as the 
male through the female. Now, there are but two primeval prin- 
ciples, namely, Love and Wisdom ; and from these all subordinate 
things have originated, and partake of their principles and proper- 
ties ; in fact, are but the conservation of them ; ever differing in 
their mode of manifestation, according to the nature of the medium 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 275 

through which they operate. Heat and Light, therefore, are the 
conservation, on the purely material plane of existence, of Supreme 
Love and Supreme Wisdom. Heat, like every other mode of 
motion, is the energy of the Supreme Will in action ; and Light, 
like every other principle of Truth, is the operation of the Supreme 
Understanding in direction. 

Light is preeminently the quality of the positive orb, whereas 
Heat is preeminently the quality of the negative orb. But neither 
of these properties can ever become really manifest only by the 
cooperation of the other, for they are coopposite and mutually 
dependent principles. The Sun, therefore, independent of any 
other planet, would be as barren of light and heat as a block of 
marble insulated from the rest of creation. Hence, in answer to 
the question, How are heat and light produced, I would reply : 
By the reciprocal action of co-opposite principles ever operating 
through positive and negative orbs. Its primary source is the 
Creator, its proximate source the Sun and the Earth. The Sun, 
abstractly, has no light of itself, neither has the Earth, abstractly, 
any heat of itself. But each of these orbs, like the male and 
female, supply the elements which the other cannot, the blending 
of which produce both Light and Heat. It is in man and woman 
that these elements, having completed their cycle, again re-produce 
love and wisdom, but finite instead of Infinite. 

As to fundamental principles, there is no actual distinction 
between Love and Heat, or Wisdom and Light, the apparent dif- 
ference is owing to the medium which constitutes the discrete 
degree through which they are manifested. It is, therefore, no 
stretch of the imagination, but a legitimate sequence, to postulate 
that Light and Heat sustain precisely the same relation to the 
physical world that Love and Wisdom do to the moral — a conser- 
vation of the same forces, and which may be found in every depart- 
ment of universal existence, ever varying their mode of manifesta- 
tion, according to the media through which they operate. Hence, 
all natural laws have their origin in spiritual forces. 

In every department of nature the elements flow from the posi- 
tive and are received by the negative ; so that the blending of the 
spheres of the two orbs is within the atmosphere of the negative 
planet. Our atmosphere is so compounded as to be equally recep- 
tive of the sphere of both orbs. Oxygen, one of its constituents, 
though of itself incombustible, is nevertheless so charged w T ith the 
calorific elements of the earth that it is the most, powerful supporter 



276 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

of combustion known. Nitrogen, being tlie other constituent and 
the receptacle of the elements of light, will neither burn nor sup- 
port combustion, but acts as the immediate agent of atmospherical 
illumination. It is a well established principle in chemical science, 
that neither of these elementary substances undergo any material 
change by their union, except their admixture. Were they to form 
a chemical union rather than simply an admixture of distinct in- 
dividual substances, light and heat would be so inseparably con- 
nected within our atmosphere that there would always be an exact 
ratio between them, so that any diminution of heat would be 
attended by an equal obscuration of light ; whereas, under exist- 
ing arrangement, light is equally strong in winter as in summer. 

Nitrogen being the supreme electro positive principle of the 
Earth, is the highest terrestrial negative principle of the Sun ; hence, 
at all seasons, is equally surcharged with his sphere on whatever 
side of the earth is for the time turned towards him ; so that light 
is without any intermission other than that which results from the 
rotation of the earth. But Oxygen being electro negative is sur- 
charged with the earth's sphere only in the degree of her declina- 
tion, so that heat varies in its intensity according to the varying 
inclination of the earth. 

In the ordinary state of the atmosphere, its electricity is invari- 
ably found to be positive, and the intensity increases according as 
the stratum examined is more elevated, so that each successive 
stratum is positive to those below it, and negative to those above 
it; and is stronger in winter than in summer, and during the day 
than the night ; but is weakest between noon and four o'clock, — 
the very period of the twenty-four hours when there is the great- 
est equilibrium between the spheres of the Sun and the Earth. 
The converse is the case when the electricity of the atmosphere is 
negative with respect to that of the Earth. These facts abun- 
dantly demonstrate, that the Sun surcharges our atmosphere with 
positive electricity or force which is neutralized by the negative 
electricity or force of the Earth, just in the degree in which the 
two orbs vary their relation to each other. 

Experience shows that the heat of the air also decreases as the 
height above the surface of the Earth increases. And it appears 
from recent investigations, that the mean temperature of space, so 
far as it can be ascertained, is 58° below the zero point of Fahren- 
heit, which, if this calculation be correct, would probably be the 
temperature of the surface of the Earth, were it not for the blend- 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 277 

ing influence of the spheres of the two orbs. But as all calcula- 
tions upon the mean temperature must necessarily be made 
comparatively near the Earth, it will forever remain impossible for 
us to learn the degree of temperature of space, that lies beyond 
the boundaries of our atmosphere. But in all probability it is 
inconceivably less than at any point where observations can be 
made. 

At an altitude of 18,000 feet, the air is indicated by the barom- 
eter to be only half as dense as at the surface of the Earth. It is 
evident that this density diminishes in a geometrical progression, 
so that it would be reduced to one-eighth at an elevation of fifty- 
four thousand feet. The effects of this decreasing density are, that 
the intensity of light is diminished and the temperature is lowered 
as we recede from the Earth. Unquestionably, beyond the bound- 
aries of our atmosphere, the lowest temperature and the most 
intense darkness prevail ; but wherever the direct influence of the 
Sun crosses its outer border, the illuminating and calorific processes 
commence and increase in intensity until it reaches the Earth, 
where the fullest conjunction takes place, the blending of which 
produces light and heat ; hence necessarily accompany each other. 

It is asserted by persons, who, by the aid of the balloon, have 
reached a high aerial elevation, that the sky above them began to 
assume the appearance of darkness ; and there can be no doubt 
that if it were possible to reach an altitude beyond the limits of 
our atmosphere, it would be found to be perfect blackness of dark- 
ness, divested of every degree of heat, although the explorer was 
still between the two orbs and the Sun pouring his sphere upon 
the Earth ; but, being beyond the Earth's radius, he would be in 
space void of both light and heat. If this hypothesis be well 
founded, of which it appears to me there can be no reasonable 
doubt, then the space between the outward borders of the atmos- 
phere of the different planets is one unbroken night, where dark- 
ness broods "upon the face of the deep " in everlasting solitude, 
frozen fast in fate. 

The immense difference in the degree of light between a clear 
noon-day Sun and the darkness of a moonless night cannot be 
accounted for upon the theory that the Sun, abstractly, is a lumin- 
ous body, filling space with his brilliancy ; for, provided the Earth 
is revolving in an immense ocean of dazzling light, its mere shad- 
ow could produce no such intense darkness as would result from a 
temporary removal or complete obscuration of the Moon and stars. 



278 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

The Earth being only eight thousand miles in diameter, the farthest 
that we could be at any one moment of time from meridian bril- 
liancy would be less than four thousand miles, and this alike pour- 
ing in upon us from all sides, but one. But we discover no per- 
ceptible difference in the degree of light when we are less than 
one quarter this distance from the Sun's rays, provided he is self- 
luminous. No such result can be produced upon a miniature scale, 
even with the dimness of a common gas light. For, if we have a 
strong light at one end of a hall, say fifty feet or more in length, 
it will be far from being dark in the shadow of any intervening 
opaque body at the opposite end. The light, though -emanating 
from one point, pervades the entire hall, and illuminates, though in 
a less degree, a screen or globe upon the side opposite its direct 
rays. 

Moreover, it has become proverbial that " it is darkest just before 
day," or when the direct rays of the Sun are only 18° or 20° below 
the morning horizon. In other words, it is the longest period of the 
absence of his influence since he disappeared in the western horizon. 
So far from this being the case, if the Sun was self-luminous, dark- 
ness would gradually increase from the time he disappeared in the 
West, until he reached the nadir, from which point it would 
gradually decrease until he again appeared in the East. 

An eclipse that should prevent any portion of the Sun's rays 
reaching our atmosphere, even its outer borders at the poles, would 
be followed by the same intense darkness, as though the Earth 
itself was the obstructing medium ; for in such an event there 
would be a complete temporary suspension of any conjoint action 
between the two orbs. 

u Every increase of space-penetrating power in the telescope 
gives us a new field of visible stars. If this expansion of the 
stellar universe go on indefinitely, and no light be lost, then, 
assuming the fixed stars to be of an average equal brightness with 
our Sun, and no light lost other than by divergence, the night 
ought to be equally luminous with the day ; for though the light 
from each point diminishes in intensity as the square of the dis- 
tance, the number of luminous points would fill up the whole space 
around us ; and if every point of space is occupied by an equally 
brilliant point of light, the distance of the points become immate- 
rial. The loss of light intercepted by stellar bodies, would make 
no difference in the total quantity of light, for each of these would 
yield from its own self-luminosity at least as much light as is inter- 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 279 

cepted. Light may, however, be intercepted by opaque bodies, 
such as planets ; but, making every allowance for these, it is diffi- 
cult to understand why we get so little light at night from the 
stellar universe, without assuming that some light is lost in its 
progress through space, — not lost absolutely, for that would be 
annihilation of force, — but converted into some other mode of 
motion."* 

If the Sun was really the source of both light and heat, as is 
generally believed, independent of any associating orb, all interme- 
diate space would be illuminated, and the intensity of heat would 
increase in exact ratio as we neared the Sun's disc. But it is well 
known that the temperature of our atmosphere depends upon the 
inclination of the Earth towards the Sun, rather than its distance 
from it, the degree of heat being governed by the Earth's declina- 
tion rather than the Sun's proximity. During the warmest season 
we are 3,236,000 miles further from the Sun than in winter. This 
is one-thirtieth of the mean distance between the two planets ; but 
this is far more than made up by the Earth's inclination to that 
orb. This is the period of her receptivity and prolification, in 
which she turns herself into the fullest conjunction with him, and 
becomes more especially receptive of his influence, which greatly 
augments her calorific condition. In other words, it is the period 
of her heat and prolification, which renders her more fully absorb- 
ent of the Sun's forces ; for we find the same law of perodicity 
in the planets as characterizes all animated existence. 

Herein consists the imperative necessity of planetary declina- 
tion. Like a faithful wife, who with strict fidelity, continually 
revolves within the sphere of her husband, but meets him in the 
fullest conjunction only in her most receptive periods, — for woman 
in her periodicity and fidelity is the highest type of nature, — the 
Earth, true to the sphere of the Sun, annually turns to him and 
becomes impregnated by his actinic forces^ and in autumn yields 
the fruits of their union. 

It is through this reciprocal influence of the two orbs that the 
Lord effects perpetual uses. The re-productive principle implant- 
ed by Him in the constitution of each individual entity, is a 
receptacle of the influent forces of His Love and Wisdom, by 

* Correlation of Phys. Forces, by Prof. Grove, p. 140. 

t Actinism is the fructifying property of light frequently denominated ray- 
power. And what is remarkable, this property of the Sun's rays is chiefly con- 
fined to the spring season, but diminishes as we approach the summer, and is 
almost wholly wanting during the summer and winter. 



280 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

virtue of which new entities are induced. The germination of 
plants, and the connubial association of birds and animals in the 
spring season, are the effects of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, 
operating through the positive and negative forces of the Sun and 
the Earth in such a manner as to incline the Earth towards the 
Sun, and induce in her such a state of heat as to give rise to a 
general fructification upon her surface. This vernal warmth 
opens the interiors of animal and vegetable life, and communicates 
to them a conjugal principle which quickens their prolific tendency, 
and causes every thing to bring forth after its kind. But man 
and woman, through their spiritual constitution, are immediately 
receptive of light and heat from the Lord, wherefore they are 
capable of enjoying marriage delights at all times, regardless of 
the relative condition of the two orbs. 

The wisest philosophers have, up to the present time, been unable 
to ascertain the physical constitution of the Sun. La Place imagined 
it to be a mass of fire, and the violent effervescences and explo- 
sions seen on its surface, to be occasioned by the eruptions of 
elastic fluids, formed in its interior, and the spots to be enormous 
caverns, like the craters of our volcanoes. Sir W. Herschel, 
judging from the dark spots of enormous size, now and then 
apparently seen floating upon its surface, supposed the Sun to be a 
solid, dark body, surrounded by a vast atmosphere, almost always 
filled with luminous clouds, occasionally opening and disclosing the 
dark mass within. Others have conjectured that these spots are 
the tops of solar mountains, which are sometimes left uncovered 
by the luminous fluid in which they are immersed. But the pre- 
vailing opinion seems to be, that the lucid matter of the Sun is 
neither a liquid substance, nor an elastic fluid, but that it consists 
of luminous clouds, floating in the Sun's atmosphere, which 
extend to a great distance, and that these dark spots are the 
opaque body of the Sun, seen through the openings of his atmos- 
phere. 

But all these phenomena are easily accounted for upon the 
hypothesis of a reciprocal action between two orbs ; for in this 
case the atmosphere, and not the planet, per se, is the illuminating, 
hence the visible object to the distant beholder. The Sun's atmos- 
phere, in virtue of his relation to a more central Sun round which 
it revolves, undoubtedly undergoes changes similar to our own, 
differing more in degree than character. There is no denying the 
fact that all material substances are pervaded by a spiritual princi- 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 281 

pie, so that the intensity of force is as the quantity of matter : and 
every entity of matter is immediately surrounded by an aura or 
sphere, which is continually surcharged with the quality and inten- 
sity of its force. All odors, individual influences, and the relation 
of entities, are the effect of this universal law. Keeping these 
facts in view, it will be readily perceived that so vast a body as the 
Sun must necessarily be surrounded by an atmosphere of enor- 
mous height, surcharged with forces, the nature and intensity of 
which are in keeping with the quality and magnitude of the orb. 
It is probable that its intense white light originates in this cause. 
To us the Sun presents the appearance of an enormous globe of 
fire, frequently in a state of violent agitation or ebullition, to which 
the Northern Lights hold but a feeble resemblance, which phe- 
nomena are abundantly accounted for by the Sun's positive relation 
to the Earth; the vastness of its dimensions, and the intensity of its 
forces resulting from its reciprocal relation with its pivotal orb on 
the one hand, and with the Earth on the other. 

The dark spots which appear to be upon the Sun's surface, are 
probably the result of obstructing media in his atmosphere, which 
blur his brilliancy in the same manner that clouds mottle the atmos- 
phere of the Earth. These spots are neither permanent nor 
uniform. Sometimes several small ones unite into a large one ; 
and again, a large one separates into numerous smaller ones. 
Some continue several days, weeks, or months, together; while 
others appear and disappear in the course of a few hours ; so that 
there is no regularity attending their changes, — precisely the same 
appearance which our atmosphere, by its gathering and separating 
clouds, must present to an observer upon the Moon. So striking 
is this similarity, that it is a matter of no little surprise that it has 
never suggested itself to the mind of the astronomer. 

In view of the fact that some of the spots are 50,000 miles in 
diameter, varying immensely in numbers as well as in magnitude, 
and having no permanency of locality, the hypothesis of La Place, 
that they are enormous caverns like the craters of our volcanoes, 
is most preposterous and without the least rational foundation. 
Such opinions only show how wild are the speculations of the 
wisest men, when without proper data from which to reason. 
What we behold of the Sun is its scintillating atmosphere and not 
the material substance of which the planet is composed. If we 
look at even a burning candle from a distance we see only the 
brilliancy of its light without detecting the opacity of its wick. 



282 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Herschel, failing to keep in view this law, was of the opinion that 
the Sun's atmosphere is " filled with luminous clouds which occa- 
sionally open and disclose the dark mass within." A more ra- 
tional hypothesis would have been, that the dark spots were the 
clouds themselves, rather than their openings, which absorbed the 
light reflected from the Sun's surface. 

Whatever theory will adequately account for the spots, will equal- 
ly explain the cause of the ever varying and dusky stripes termed 
belts which extend across the disc of Jupiter. There are usually 
three of these belts or zones that are equi-distant from each other ; 
but there is no regularity or uniformity attending them. Some- 
times only one is to be seen, and then again five, and seven or 
eight have been distinctly visible ; and in the latter case, two of 
them have been known to disappear during the time of observa- 
tion. On the 28th of May, 1780, Dr. Herschel perceived u the 
whole surface of Jupiter covered with small curved belts, or rather, 
lines, that were not continuous across his disc. These belts are not 
always parellel to each other, though such is generally the case. 
Their breadth and time of continuance are likewise extremely va- 
riable. One belt has been observed to grow narrow while another 
in its neighborhood has increased in breadth, as if one had flowed 
into the other. Sometimes they remain unchanged for seven 
months, at other times new belts have been formed in an hour ; thus 
ever changing like the clouds of our atmosphere. 

As the period of the Sun's actual rotation on his axis is only 
little more than twenty-five days, and as some twenty-five years 
have been known to elapse without any spots being visible, we are 
obliged to resort to some other hypothesis as an explanation for 
their appearance, than their being enormous caverns ; or, as some 
have conjectured, " the tops of solar mountains, which are some- 
times left uncovered by the luminous fluid in which they are im- 
mersed." The part of the Sun's disc not occupied by spots is far 
from being uniformly bright. Its surface is finely mottled with an 
appearance of minute dark dots or pores, which, attentively 
watched for several days in succession, are found to be in a con- 
stant state of change. And, as we only see the luminous atmos- 
phere by which the planet is surrounded, and not the planet itself, 
we may be greatly deceived and probably are, in its real dimen- 
sions. Its 886,000 miles of diameter must also include its atmos- 
pherical diameter, which would immeasurably reduce the solar 
substance of that orb. The relative height of our atmosphere to 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 283 

the diameter of the Earth, is as one to one hundred and thirty- 
three ; and allowing the same ratio for the Sun, he would have an 
atmosphere reaching some 6,600 miles from his surface, which would 
reduce his actual diameter more than 13,000 miles. For the same 
reason, the Earth must appear much larger to an observer of 
another planet than its actual diameter. Herschel was of the 
opinion that the height of the Sun's atmosphere is not less than 
1,843, nor more than 2,765 miles, consisting of tw r o regions ; that 
nearest to the Sun being opaque ; the outermost emitting vast 
quantities of light and forming the apparent luminous globe we 
behold. 

That the Sun has an atmosphere of an enormous height there 
can be no doubt ; but I am not pleading that it is absolutely 6,600 
miles, for if the same laws of attraction and condensation are 
operative there as with us — being proportionate to the quantity of 
matter — the gravity on the Sun's surface w r ould be twenty-eight 
times greater than on the Earth, so that a column of air on the 
former, would cause a pressure tw T enty-eight times greater than it 
would on our globe, a pressure which w T ould require eight thou- 
sand degrees of temperature to expand to the rarefaction of our 
atmosphere. 

But there may be, and probably are, many conditions wholly 
unknown to the merely natural philosopher, which have a power- 
ful influence upon the physical conditions of the planets. The 
first fundamental principle of all natural science is, that Physical 
conditions are governed by Spiritual forces. Spirit is the positive 
principle to which Matter is ever subordinate, and becomes the 
immediate exciting cause of every phenomenon upon the ultimate 
plane of existence. What is true of spirit and matter is equally 
true of the Divine and the Spiritual ; but here, on the moral 
side, man is the medium of connection between the two, so that 
the spiritual forces partake of man's condition, and through the 
spiritual the material. These principles, though they underlie all 
science, philosophers have never, to my knowledge, taken into 
consideration. Their investigations have been confined to external 
phenomena, or the plane of effects, not yet having penetrated into 
the realm of causes. These phenomena can never become proper- 
ly understood only as we become familiar with the occult forces 
which produce them. A thorough knowledge of the marriage 
law by which forces are transmuted, puts us in possession of a key 
to unlock every mystery in Nature ; it opens up a pathway from 



284 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the Material ultimates to the Infinite Divine Cause. If I claim 
to be the discoverer of this law — a law which I believe to be of 
more philosophic importance than any hitherto made — it is because 
I know of no one who has ever before conceived the thought. 

Successive gradations characterize nature in her every depart- 
ment. Each gradation becomes the conjunctive medium between 
the proximate higher and the next lower, giving color and shape to 
whatever influences are transmitted through it. The sphere of the 
Creator flows into man, and through him into nature. In its 
transition it partakes of the moral qualities of its human media, 
which, in virtue of man's positive relation to the lower orders of 
existence, impregnate the more subtle forces which control the 
physical conditions of the world. In addition to this disordering of 
the Divine influx, man, according to the degree of his wickedness, 
is continually absorbent of a virus from the spiritual domain of 
evil, which exudes from him and is imparted with every breath to the 
atmosphere. By this means the planet sympathizes with the uni- 
versal sorrows of the race, so that " the whole creation groaneth 
and travelleth in pain together." These mephitic exudations sur- 
charge the atmosphere with the sins of the world, and thus destroy 
the harmony of its spiritual forces. This is the primary cause of 
miasmatic pools and sandy plains. Man inhales his own poisons 
and treads the barren waste of his own wickedness. Tornadoes, 
tempests, the terrific crash of the electric forces, lightnings dart- 
ing hither and thither, rending with awful bolts of displeasure the 
clouds that intercept between the two orbs, are but nature's efforts 
to regain her lost equilibrium. 

It is well known that when the awful simoon or still more poi- 
sonous samiel* sweeps across the plains of Egypt, Arabia, Syria, 

* The samiel, or what is sometimes called the mortifying wind, is, beyond all 
others, the most dreadful in its effects. It generally blows on the southern coast of 
Arabia and the deserts near the city of Bagdad. This is supposed to have been the 
pestilence of the ancients, frequently killing all those who are involved in its pas- 
sage. What its malignity consists in, no one can tell, as no one has ever survived its 
effects to give any information of the sensations it produces. It has been said that 
it frequently assumes a visible form, and darts in a kind of blueish vapor along the 
surface of the country. The natives of Persia and Arabia talk of its effects with 
terror ; they describe it as under the conduct of a minister of vengeance, who gov- 
erns its terrors, and raises or disperses it as he thinks proper. When inhaled, it 
produces instantaneous death and decomposition, so that, on attempting to move 
the body, it falls to pieces. To escape its effects travellers throw themselves as 
closely as possible to the ground, and wait till it passes by, which is commonly a few 
minutes. The camels, either by instinct or experience, have notice of its approach 
and are so well aware of it, that they are said to make an unusual noise and thrust 
their noses into the sand. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 285 

and the adjacent countries, that the sky becomes dark and heavy, 
the Sun loses his splendor and assumes a violet color, the air 
becomes thick and turbid, and the temperature often ranges more 
than one hundred and twenty-eight degrees. The rapid motion 
of these currents, their destructive influence, the change of the 
appearance of the Sun's rays, and the turbidness of the atmosphere 
are the result of the loss of equilibrium between the spiritual forces 
of the two orbs, evidently the effects of human wickedness. " Sin, 
when it is finished, brings forth death." 

I apprehend that without sin, the order and equilibrium of cre- 
ation would be quiescently maintained,— the Earth, watered by 
the dews of heaven, with as little disturbance as now characterizes 
evaporation, or as previous to man's transgression, when there 
went up a mist from the Earth and watered the whole face of 
the ground ; * and yielded to man an abundance of well-matured 
and healthful fruit as the reward of his labor. It is but reasonable 
to suppose that noxious weeds and vexatious thorns of every 
description, will gradually disappear from the Earth as man ceases 
to generate the elements upon which they exist. They had their 
birth in moral disorders, and they can be destroyed only by spirit- 
ual harmony. Eden fruitfulness is the result of obedience to God. 

These remarks are necessary in order to show the connection 
and correspondence between mind and matter, and the effect 
which the former has over the latter. To me it is clearly evident 
that the apostacy of our world, affects, to a greater or less extent, 
the entire solar system, as it is but one family of planetary orbs in 
close sympathy with each other ; and the query naturally arises 
whether or no the mottled and ever-changing aspect of other 
planets belonging to our solar system, are not the result of being 
in sympathetic relation with our own. 

The planets being the largest material bodies, are the ultimate 
media of the Divine force operating through them, to effect and 
maintain the successive orders of vegetable and animal life. This 
force having its origin in the cooperative action of the Infinite will 
and understanding, in accordance with the law of conservation, is 
transmuted by the material elements through which it operates, 
into light and heat in the atmosphere of each planet, not by com- 
bustion, friction, radiation, or undulation ; but by the blending 
spheres of two correlative orbs ; so that the forces which first cre- 
ated continually maintains the order of creation, 

*Gen. 11 : 6. 



286 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

This hypothesis completely obviates the necessity of applying 
the law of inverse square of the distance to the stellar universe ; 
for as light and heat become perceptible only within the boundaries 
of the atmosphere, no measurement can be applied to them beyond 
the sphere of their actual existence. Being a resident of America, 
the love I may have for a woman in China, does not fill the inter- 
vening space between us, but its effects, so far as its immediate 
action is concerned, are confined to the spheres of the individual 
parties, establishing conditions in each which could not exist with- 
out a reciprocal affection. On precisely the same principle, light 
and heat are produced within the atmosphere, by the- reciprocal 
influence of two orbs, sustaining a coopposite relation to each other, 
but they have no more tendency to fill the intervening space 
between these orbs, than has love and wisdom to affect the atmos- 
phere between the congenially sympathetic parties. The quantity 
of light and heat, therefore, have absolutely nothing to do with 
the square of the distance, but depends entirely upon the positive 
and negative relation of the two orbs. ' 

Neptune, the most distant planet yet discovered within our solar 
system, revolves in its orbit at a distance of nearly 3,000,000,000 
miles from the Sun. Now, as the intensity of mere radiant light 
and heat are inverse to the square of the distance, Neptune would 
be furnished with only ^ part as much light and heat as the earth ; 
an amount totally inadequate to sustain life, even in the lowest forms 
of vegetation. In view of these facts, no satisfactory explanation 
has ever been given to show how life is sustained upon the more 
remote orbs. To say that the Creator can so arrange the consti- 
tution of things, as to cause prolific vegetation and animal growth 
on a planet, over which broods an eternal winter's night, more 
refrigerant than the human mind can conceive, is mere childish 
equivocation, and evidently without the least foundation in truth. 
But upon the hypothesis set forth in these pages, viz.: that the light 
and heat of different orbs does not depend so much upon their dis- 
tance from as their relation to each other, every difficulty is 
obviated. 

It is evident from all physical phenomena, that nature's laws 
operate with unvarying deviation ; and it is not irrational to sup- 
pose that as they have their origin in the same Infinite source, 
that this uniformity of action characterizes every department of 
creation. The law of conservation of forces establishes the correct- 
ness of this supposition, showing that the change is in the mode of 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 287 

force rather than in the principle from which it takes its rise. 
Hence, it is my opinion, founded upon the constitution of man, 
that the peculiar qualities of a planet governs the height and den- 
sity of its atmosphere, which in its turn becomes the medium of 
conjunction between the light from the positive and heat from the 
negative orbs. Under such an arrangement Neptune may have 
quite as genial a clime as the Earth or Mercury ; and though its 
distance is inconceivably greater, it may have been endowed with 
a degree of negativeness which secures to its inhabitants an atmos- 
pheric temperature and brilliancy, even greater than that which we 
enjoy. Affinity is not measured by time or space. 

If these opinions be well founded, it is clearly evident that there 
is a constant exchange of electro-magnetic forces between the posi- 
tive and negative planets. Under ordinary circumstances the 
balance between these forces is so quiescently maintained that they 
are rendered imperceptible to man. But by whatever means they 
are separated, whether by mechanical or insulating vapors in the 
atmosphere, they exhibit the most intense and terrific action, rend- 
ing every non-conductor that intercepts their union into frag- 
ments. The po sitive force which induces light is uniform at all 
seasons of the year ; but the negative force which produces warmth 
depends upon the Earth's inclination. As the Earth inclines towards 
the Sun the warmth increases, but owing to the moral condition of 
its inhabitants, it sends up mephitic vapors which act as insulators 
between the forces of the two orbs; for in the physical, as well as 
in the moral condition of things, the insulating and darkening in- 
fluences are derived from the negative principle — they obstruct the 
light in the physical world, and bewilder the judgment in the moral. 

Every planet, per se, in virtue of being pervaded by spiritual 
forces, the correlatives of the Divine force, (for God is the only ef- 
ficient cause in nature, secondary causes being not properly causes, 
but only the occasions of the effect, which truth underlies every 
other principle in creation,) is an electro-magnet, one part of which 
sustains a positive or negative relation to the other ; and the whole, 
to a greater or less extent, holds a positive or negative relation to 
other planets. The union of the two magnetic spheres constitutes 
quiescent electricity, which, by a proper electrical apparatus, may be 
so far separated into their positive and negative constituents, as 
to demonstrate by their violent efforts to effect a reunion, their af- 
finity for each other. 



288 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

The polarity of magnetic forces is effected equally as much by 
otation, as by friction, pressure, percussion, or torsion. It is for 
this reason that the magnetic poles of the earth do not correspond 
with the poles of its axis ; but with its declination to the Sun, or 
at right angles with the ecliptic. The rotary motion of a planet 
has a tendency to group its magnetism near these magnetic poles, 
instead of the poles of its rotation, in the same manner as the poles 
are developed at the extremities of a bar of iron which is subjected 
to torsion. 

Keeping these facts in view, we arrive by a natural process of 
reasoning at the cause of that beautiful phenomenon, the Aurora 
Borealis, being the visible effect *>f the union of bi-sexual spheres — 
the effect of the Sun's sphere with that of the Earth. Dr. Halley 
was of the opinion that the poles of the Earth are in some way con- 
nected with the Aurora, but was unable to designate by what 
means it is induced. Dr. Young was certain that it is intimately 
connected with electro-magnetism, and attributed the light of the 
Aurora to the " illuminated agency of electricity upon the mag- 
netical substances." Sir John Herschel also attributed it to the 
agency of electricity. 

But to me it is clearly evident that it is the effect of the power- 
ful action of the Sun upon the Earth, at the season when the Earth 
is the least negative to the Sun. At such time the equilibrium of 
the two forces is not completely maintained, the principle of light 
being in ascendency over the properties of heat ; for it must be 
remembered that the negative, rather than the positive, is ever peri- 
odic in its relation and action. But the principle of light in passing 
through our atmosphere becomes charged with its negative qualities, 
so that in being repelled or thrown off at the positive pole of the 
Earth, it exhibits, in the Arctic region, a brilliancy which emulates 
not uufrequently the lightning in its vividness and the rainbow in 
its coloring. At times, these coruscations cover the whole hemis- 
phere, presenting a flickering and fantastic appearance. On these 
occasions their motions are amazingly quick and irregular, so that 
they astonish the spectator with their rapid changes and grotesque 
appearances. They suddenly start up in new localities, and skim- 
ming briskly along the heavens, present such a diversity of shape, 
that, "in Siberia, on the confines of the icy sea, the spectral 
flames appear like rushing armies, and the hissing, crackling noises 
of those aerial fireworks so terrify the dogs and the hunters, that 
they fall prostrate on the ground, and will not move while the 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 289 

raging host is passing." At other times it is a steady white light 
apparently durable and arising in a compact majestic arch and 
lighting up the heavens in the vicinity of the Ferroe Islands as bril- 
liant as the day, but yet so evanescent that while the beholder looks 
upon it, it is gone. 

Precisely the same phenomenon, differing more in degree than 
in character, is produced by the conjoint action of the masculine 
\Li\d feminine spheres, an effect too feeble to be perceptible only 
under the most favorable circumstances. There is a plane beyond 
which, matter in any of its cruder forms can furnish us no evidence 
of its existence — forces that are too subtle for mere physical 
research. It is here that the forces which control matter reside, 
but they must be tested by the spirit, rather than by philosophical 
instruments, or chemical analysis. Probably no person has been 
more fortunately situated for the investigation of these occult forces 
than myself. Having now, for more than five years, been associated 
with a woman whose remarkable susceptibility and acuteness of 
perception preeminently qualified her to aid me in these researches, 
I have been enabled to familiarize myself with those interior princi- 
ples of philosophy, which will forever elude grosser means of inves- 
tigation. 

One day, without the subject here under consideration having 
been previously mentioned, on placing my hands upon the head of 
an extremely negative woman of rank, whom I was professionally 
treating, streams of auroral light were seen to issue from the sides 
of the head just posterior and above the ears, the magnetic poles of 
the brain, so much so, that the lady previously alluded to, and 
who happened to be seated in my office at the time, earnestly 
exclaimed, " what beautiful lights I see just back and above her 
ears as soon as you come in contact with her. They seem to 
flash out like the northern lights and keep up a scintillating action 
as long as you remain in contact with her." 

The M electrical egg," is another illustration of the same princi- 
ple. When neither pole is magnetized the common phenomenon 
takes place, but as soon as we magnatize either of them the light 
is distributed so as to form a ring, which is very much like the 
form of the Aurora Borealis, and is animated by a gyrating motion. 

Adverse as these opinions are to the current philosophy of the 
world, I feel the assurance that they are founded in immutable 
truths, and will finally become the basis, not only of a more cor- 
rect system of astronomy, but will also, more fully reveal the 



290 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

nature and operations of those laws which hitherto have been 
involved in the greatest obscurity. The analogy between the influ- 
ence of the Divine Sphere over the spiritual constitution of man, 
and the Sun over the solar system, whether we view them in their 
illuminating, their calorific, their purifying, or their fructifying 
principle, is complete. I am unable to discover a single instance 
wherein God's relation to man has not its counterpart in the Sun's 
relation to the world. God operates upon the plane of the mind* 
and the Sun is bis vicegerent upon the plane of matter to all those 
planets which revolve around him as a centre. " For the invisible 
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being 
understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power 
and godhead."* 

.' Thus the Sun stands as the emblem of the Eternal Mind, tran- 
scendency beautiful and brilliant to all those orbs that are in a 
condition to receive his unobstructed rays. Fixed in a central 
position, as an eternal and inexhaustible principle, unvarying in 
the influence sent forth from him to bless nature in her every 
department ; and though the individual orbs may turn from him, 
as the Earth at those periods when her womb is unfruitful and her 
bosom is covered with the frost of winter, while the bleak winds 
sigh a sad requiem over her desolation ; or, though they may 
exhale an opaque sphere which intercepts his influence, still he 
changes not. And when the planet ceases to send forth an 
obstructing sphere, or is weary with her disinclination, and again 
seeks a more full conjunction with him, he disperses her clouds, 
kisses her cheek, warms her heart, and bathes her brow with the 
dews of heaven. He knows no distance but a rejection of his 
sphere, no nearness but the absorbing of his influence. 

To the Sun, as a pivotal orb of the solar system, was given the 
power " to rule over the day," and as the servant of his Creator, 
he distributes blessings without number among all the tribes of 
sentient and insentient existence, and maintains order and harmony 
throughout the physical creation. Married to the Earth, the 
blending of the two spheres produces radiant heat, which imparts 
life and motion to all things capable of receiving it, variegating 
nature with an endless variety of shades and hues, and peopling 
the air, land and water, with the fruits of their union. These 
innumerable offsprings divided into separate species, joyfully gam- 
bol upon the lap of their mother, and when the paternal rays 

* Romans! : 20. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 291 

illuminate the eastern horizon, one universal pam of rejoicing, 
more grand than that in honor of Apollo, goes up from all nature 
to greet his presence. 

The ancient church was in the faith, that in the spiritual world 
the Lord was the Sun of the universal heavens ; and that His 
celestial love appears to all angels, and constitutes the light of 
their habitation. But that the wicked did not possess the moral 
condition requisite to qualify them to become recipients of this 
light, consequently were in outer darkness. This faith was founded 
upon the well-grounded opinion that the light to the individual 
spirit, depended wholly upon his conjunction with the Lord, — not 
upon any changeability of this spiritual Sun itself, but upon the 
moral fitness of the individual to receive it. For this reason, in 
their worship they always turned their faces towards the Sun, as 
the representative of the Divine sphere, — holding that orb itself in 
no special reverence, but looked upon it only as an emblem of God. 
Their decendants, however, as they became more estranged from the 
Lord, and thereby darkened in their perceptions, degenerated into 
idolatry, and substituted in their worship the created for the Crea- 
tor, and dedicated temples to the Sun and Moon and erected 
statues to their honor. 

Electricity. 

I am aware that some philosophers have ignored the idea of there 
being two distinct species of electricity, but set out with the sup- 
position that there is but one kind ; — that its particles repel one- 
another with a force varying inversely to the square of the dis- 
tance ; that they attract the particles of all other matter, or some 
specific ingredient in that matter, with a force following the same 
law of the inverse square of the distance ; that this fluid is dis- 
persed through the pores of bodies, and from some unknown pecu- 
liarity, can move through them with various degrees of facility, 
according as they are conductors or non-conductors. These affirm 
that bodies are in their natural state with regard to electricity, 
when the repulsion of the fluid they contain for a particle of fluid 
at a distance, is exactly balanced by the attraction of the matter in 
the body for the same particle ; and that in this state they may be 
considered as saturated with the electrical fluid. Whenever they 
contain a quantity of fluid greater than this, they believe them to 
he positively electrified, or to have positive electricity. 



292 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Where, on the other hand, there is a quantity less than that 
required for saturation, they say that the body is negatively electri- 
fied, or has negative electricity. In the former case, it is the fluid 
that is redundant, or in excess ; in the latter, it is the matter which 
is left unsaturated that should be considered as the redundant 
principle. According to this theory, positive electricity consists in 
a redundance of fluid, or in matter that is over-saturated, as it has 
been termed ; that of negative electricity, in a deficiency of fluid, 
or in matter under saturated, or, what is an equivalent expression, 
in redundant matter. I shall offer a few considerations in opposi- 
tion to this hypothesis. 

Take two discs, one of zinc, and the other of copper, two 
inches or more in diameter, ground perfectly plain, and having in 
their centres insulating handles perpendicular to their surfaces, by 
means of which the plates can be brought into contact, without being 
actually touched with the hand. *With this precaution the discs are 
made to approach till they touch one another, then separate 
them by keeping them parallel as they are drawn back. If the 
electricity they possess after this separation be examined, it will be 
found that the copper disc is charged with negative, and the zinc 
disc with positive electricity. Thus it is established as a general 
fact, that these two metals, insulated in their natural state, are 
brought, by mutual contact, into opposite electrical states. 

No explanation has yet been given of this curious fact, which 
seems to be at variance with all the previously ascertained laws of 
electric equilibrium. The transfer of electricity from one metal to 
the other during their contact, implies the operation of some pecu- 
liar force which no theory has yet embraced. 

If the influence of a powerful battery be transmitted through 
water, it will operate in decomposing that fluid, although the wires 
which form the communication with the poles be at a considerable 
distance from each other. They may even be placed in separate 
vessels, provided the portions of water in which they terminate are 
made to communicate with one another, by means of a syphon full 
of water, or even by moistened threads. We find, under these 
circumstances, the whole of the oxygen of the decomposed water, 
transferred to the positive, while the hydrogen is collected at the 
negative wire. This effect is precisely what we might expect, if 
my hypothesis of a male and female principle pervading all material 
substances, be true. The oxygen being a powerful electro-negative 
element, readily unites with the positive wire, and leaves the hydro- 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 293 

gen to unite with the negative. This, also, demonstrates that the 
oxygen and hydrogen sustain the relation of positive and negative 
to each other. There is another important fact connected with 
this subject which should not be overlooked, namely, that the 
positive always greatly exceeds the negative in weight, while, at the 
same time, the number of particles are equal. In both air and 
water, oxygen is the negative element, but its comparative weight 
with nitrogen, in the formation of the atmosphere, though particle 
unites with particle, is as twenty-three to seventy-seven, and its 
union with hydrogen in the formation of water, is as one to eight. 
It is also to be observed, that two bodies which have both been in 
contact with the same electric, mutually repel each other. 

If an electrified body, charged with either species of electricity, 
be presented to an unelectrified or neutral body, its tendency is to 
disturb the electrical condition of the different parts of the neutral 
body. The electrified body induces a state of electricity contrary 
to its own in that part of the neutral body which is nearest to it, 
and consequently a state of electricity similar to its own in the 
remote part. Hence, the neutrality of the second body is destroyed 
by the action of the first, and the adjacent parts of the two bodies, 
having now opposite electricities, will attract each other. 

Bodies which have received their electricity from excited glass 
repel one another, and are likewise repelled by the excited glass. 
The same thing happens with respect to those bodies which have 
received their electricity from excited sealing-wax. But upon 
examining the action of any of the bodies belonging to the one set 
upon any of those belonging to the other, we find that, instead of 
repelling, they attract each other. Thus, a ball which has received 
its electricity from an excited glass attracts one that has been electri- 
fied by excited sealing-wax, and is attracted by it. But what is 
still more conclusive, the moment these balls have come into con- 
tact, provided they have both been electrified in the same degree, 
they cease at once to exhibit any signs of electricity, as if the elec- 
tricities of both were suddenly annihilated by their mutual commu- 
nication. This experiment very clearly demonstrates that there 
are two different and opposite kinds of electricity ; the one obtained 
from glass and the other from sealing-wax. 

The mode of action which these two electricities exerts on matter 
may be expressed by the following law, namely: That bodies 
charged with either species of electricity repel bodies charged with 
the same species, but attract bodies charged with the other species ; 



294 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

and that at equal distances the attractive power in the one case is 
exactly equal to the repulsive power in the other. Although each 
of these two electricities, when taken separately, acts in a manner 
precisely similar to the other, for either is positive to every thing 
else, they nevertheless exhibit in all their relations to each other, a 
mark of contrariety of nature. Hence they are agents having 
opposite qualities, which, as to observable effects, completely neu- 
tralize one another by combination. 

Another remarkable circumstance which characterizes these 
agents is, that the excitation of one species of electricity is always 
accompanied by the excitation of the other, and both are produced 
in equal degrees. Thus, when glass is rubbed by silk or flannel 
just as much negative electricity is produced in the silk or flannel 
as there is positive electricity produced in the glass; and whatever 
electrified bodies are repelled by the one are attracted in the same 
degree by the other. Since the two surfaces rubbed acquire oppo- 
posite electricities, it follows, as a consequence of the law above 
stated, that they must attract one another ; and this is found invari- 
ably to be the case. 

If a white and black ribbon of two or three feet long, and per- 
fectly dry, be applied to each other by their flat surfaces, and are 
then drawn repeatedly between the finger and thumb, so as to rub 
against each other, they will be found to adhere together, and if 
pulled asunder at one end will rush together with great quickness. 
While united they exhibit no sign of electricity, because the opera- 
tion of the one is just the reverse of that of the other, and their 
power is neutralized and inoperative. If completely separated, 
however, each will manifest a strong electrical power, the one 
attracting those bodies which the other repels. 

When the electrical discharge is made to pass in a perpendicular 
direction through the thickness of a cord, which may be effected 
by placing it against the outer coating of a Leyden jar, and setting 
the lower ball of the discharging rod against the other side of the 
card, so that its thickness may be interposed between it and the 
tin-foil, and making the explosion in the usual way, the card will be 
perforated. At the edge of the perforation, on each side of the 
card, there will be a small bur or protrusion, which is always larger 
on the side next to the jar, than on that next to the discharging 
rod ; the former being the negative and the latter the positive side. 
In this experiment we have an additional evidence, that even in 
the electrical currents, the positive, or masculine is much larger 



• MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 295 

than the negative, or feminine, as is evinced by the increased size 
of the bur on the negative side of the card, this being effected by 
the positive electrical current passing through to the negative. 

By passing the shock through a quire of paper, instead of a sin- 
gle card, the progress of this effect at different depths from the 
surface may be accurately analyzed. Mr. Symmer, who devised 
this experiment, observed that the ragged edges were for the most 
part directed outward from the body of the quire. Upon examin- 
ing the leaves separately, however, he found that the edges of the 
holes were bent regularly two different ways, and were remarkably 
so about the middle of the quire ; one edge of each hole being 
throughout its course forced one way, and the other edge in the 
contrary direction, as if the hole had been made in the paper by 
drawing two threads through it in opposite directions. 

The phenomenon here observed is the result of the same laws 
which govern the action of the nervous system. The brain is the 
great ganglionic battery, which conveys its electrical force from 
the cerebellum, through the efferent or motor fibres, to every part 
of the organism which is transmitted back through the afferent or 
sensory fibres to the cerebrum, — corresponding to the centripetal 
and centrifugal forces of the planetary systems. Or if we con- 
template man as a peripheral being, and the brain as the centre of 
motor power, the afferent nerves convey the impressions from the 
circumference to it, whereupon it sends back through the efferent 
nerves the mandate of its will. 

Chemical. 

Let us observe the workings of this mysterious agent in some of 
its chemical effects. If we immerse two plates, one of amalga- 
mated zinc and the other of platinum, into a jar containing a solu- 
tion of copper, no perceptible effect will take place so long as the 
two metals are disconnected, but as soon as they are united by 
means of a metalic rod, or their tops are allowed to lean until they 
touch each other, a coating of copper is immediately thrown 
down on the platinum. The platinum has no power of itself to 
reduce that metal from that fluid, neither has the zinc, but the phe- 
nomenon now observable is the result of the united action of two 
spheres. The chemical force of the zinc is not transferred and 
made over to the platinum by the near association of the two 
metals, as was supposed by Prof. Faraday, but a condition is effected 
which neither had any power to produce in their individual or 



296 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

separate capacity. We might take, instead of the platinum, a piece 
of copper or silver, and they would have no action of their own 
on this solution, but the moment the zinc is introduced and touches 
the other metal, the action takes place, and it becomes covered with 
copper. It is here seen that the union of the two forces produces 
wholly a new result — it sets up an action creative of other con- 
ditions. 

Again : if we pour sulphindigotic acid (a mixture of one part of 
indigo and fifteen parts of concentrated oil of vitriol) into a flat 
dish and take two platinum plates, attached to two poles of a bat- 
tery of sufficient strength, and immerse them in this solution, they 
will soon entirely destroy the blue color, and what is remarkable, 
this chemical action is due only to one pole of the battery ; for if 
we make a porous dike of sand, separating the fluid into two parts, 
and immerse a plate into each it will become blackened on the side 
which evolves hydrogen gas, in consequence of the liberated 
hydrogen withdrawing oxygen from the indigo, but remains 
unchanged upon the other side of the dike. Or, if the two plati- 
num plates are immersed in the solution of copper, mentioned in 
the previous paragraph, though they may be connected they pro- 
duce no effect whatever ; but as soon as the wires of the battery 
are applied, the copper is thrown down in a metalic state on one of 
the platinum plates. It is seen by these experiments that the elec- 
trical forces operating through the two platinum plates as its poles, 
produce these chemical actions, though the plates themselves would 
have no effect upon either solution. These afford us sufficient 
evidence that chemical affinity and electrical action are but the 
results of the same cause — one producing the other. The distur- 
bance of electric equilibrium, and a development of electricity, 
invariably accompany the chemical action of the fluid on metalic 
substances, and are most plentiful when that action occasions 
oxidation. 

Magnetism . 

But let us trace it one step further, and learn what is very 
improperly denominated, its magnetic effects. A bar of copper is, 
apparently, wholly destitute of magnetism ; but if we send an 
electrical current through it from a Voltaic battery, it immediately 
becomes a powerful magnet so long as the current continues. And 
now what is observable, any magnet, by whatever means it may 
have imbibed its magnetic force, exhibits the same phenomena of 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 297 

positive and negative poles, attracting opposites and repelling likes 
which alawys accompanies electricity, which proves that there are 
two distinct kinds of magnetic forces, as well as electrical, directly 
opposite in their effects, though similar in their mode of action, or 
rather, we might say : that there is a reciprocal action of Voltaic 
and magnetic currents, which proves that Magnetism as thus man- 
ifested in the material elements, is only an effect of electricity, and 
that it has no existence as a distinct or separate principle. Conse- 
quently, Voltaic electricity being that peculiar kind which is 
elicited by the force of chemical action, forms, as immediately con- 
nected with the theory of the Earth and the planets, a part of the 
physical account of their nature. The attractive powers of the 
magnet is too well understood to require further elucidation. 

It has been well substantiated by Dr. Faraday, " that Magnetism 
is identical with elecricity," and he justly observes : " that an agent 
which is conducted along metalic wires," (in a manner he has 
described,) " which, while so passing, possesses the peculiar mag- 
netic actions and force of a current of electricity, which can effect 
chemical decomposition, which can agitate and convulse the limbs 
of a frog, and which finally can produce a spark by its discharge 
through charcoal, can only be electricity ." In this opinion I most 
fully concur ; and much regret that electrical and magnetic 
action should ever have become so confounded with each other in 
the scientific world. Throughout this work, I shall use the term 
electricity to designate that peculiar property of matter which 
controls the condition of the material creation ; but by Magnetism 
I designate those higher principles which control the condition of 
spirit, and which belong exclusively to the plane of mind. 

It was demonstrated by Sir Humphrey Davy, and has been 
reaffirmed by Prof. Faraday, that the Voltaic battery caused bodies 
to attract each other in the same manner of ordinary electricity. 
This was done by placing two leaves of gold in a glass jar, one con- 
nected with each pole of the battery, they would then become 
attracted towards each other, until contact took place, when they 
would immediately burn up in a brilliant flame ; intense heat being 
the result of this union. 

Gravitation. 

Gravitation is excited by the same means, so as to overcome the 
natural tendency of falling bodies. For if we place a sheet of 
paper upright on one edge, resting against a support, and then take 



298 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

a stick of shell-lac ten or twelve inches in length, and an inch or 
more in diameter, rub it with flannel, and hold it an inch or two 
in front of the upper part of this upright sheet, the paper is imme- 
diately moved towards the shell-lac, and by now drawing the latter 
away, the paper falls over without having been touched by any- 
thing visible. In this simple experiment, we observe precisely the 
same phenomenon, in principle, which is manifest when we let go 
of a solid substance, and it falls to the ground. In the latter case, 
the gravitation is normal, in the former, it has been intensified by 
electrical excitation, which so far overcomes the normal gravity, as 
to first raise the sheet from its leaning posture, compelling it to 
follow the shell-lac. 

But we have a more remarkable demonstration of the same law, 
by coiling a copper wire, so as to form a helix or corkscrew, and 
connecting the extremities of the wires with the poles of a galvan- 
ic battery. If a magnetized steel bar or needle, be placed within 
the screw, so as to rest upon the lower part, the instant a current 
of electricity is sent through the wire of the helix, the steel bar 
starts up by the influence of this invisible power, and remains in 
the air, in opposition to the force of gravitation. The effect of the 
electro-magnetic power exerted by each turn of the wire, is to urge 
the north pole of the magnet in one direction, and the south pole 
in the other. The helix has all the properties of a magnet, while 
the electric current is flowing through it ; and for the time being 
becomes a force sufficient to maintain a miniature world in itself; 
holding in space a ponderable body, without any visible contact, 
possessing a north and a south pole, which attract opposites, and 
repel likes, and which by a proper application of the two poles of 
a Voltaic battery, may be made to revolve upon an axis in perfect 
imitation of the planets. 

Co hesion. 

The Cohesive effect of electrical, or what is usually termed mag- 
netic action, is too well understood to need any elucidation in this 
place. Either the magnet or Voltaic battery will be sufficient to 
furnish all necessary experiments. I will, therefore, only add, that 
heat is absorbed in proportion as the particles diverge, and is evolv- 
ed as they approximate ; or, in other words, whenever we diminish 
the attraction of Cohesion, heat is absorbed, and whenever we 
increase that attraction heat is evolved : so we have this law, viz. : 
intensity of Cohesion is always in proportion to the quantity of 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 299 

heat, the apparent temperature of bodies is as the freedom with 
which they part with their caloric. 

Now, all these observable phenomena, in Chemistry, Magnet- 
ism, Attraction. Gravitation, and Cohesion, are the result of 
only one force in Nature, viz. : AFFINITY. The apparent 
divorces and new marriages that are everywhere taking place 
among the imponderable elements and material substances, are but 
the result of the various degrees of intensity of this one all-pervad- 
ing principle, — a principle which is as universal as mind and mat- 
ter. Without it, there is no action ; within it, are all actions, 
all results : and this for the substantial reason that the sphere of the 
Creator pervades his creation, — a conservation of creative forces, — 
and these are forever seeking to effect such unions as shall result 
in new creations, creations of higher conditions and individual 
entities. A law which is so uniform in action cannot have but one 
origin, cannot be but one fundamental principle. 

If we turn our attention to the still more delicate test upon the 
nervous system, we find the same law in active operation : and 
here the positive and negative influence of the sex is clearly mani- 
fest. The difference between human and chemical electricity 
consists, not in their nature, but their quality, — the latter being 
more refined, or approximating more closely to spirit. 

If we suspend a quarter of a dollar by a horse hair or silk thread 
eight or ten inches long, in a glass bowl, or a wide-mouth glass jar, 
and hold it perfectly still for a few minutes, the coin will soon begin 
to perform a rotary motion ; if held by a man the motion will be 
from left to right, if held by a .woman the motion will be from 
right to left, the female motion being the reverse of the male 
motion. If, when held by a man, a woman places her hand in his 
left, or upon his head, the rotary motion will be changed into an 
oscillating movement, like a pendulum. The same if when held 
by a woman, and a man unites his sphere with hers by contact. I 
have found that the degree of this effect is in ratio to the positiveness 
of the man, and the negativeness of the woman. Men of extreme 
effeminate character, or women partaking largely of the masculine 
character, produce but little or no effect in the experiment, as one 
seems to neutralize the other. In trying these experiments with 
an extremely sensitive and negative woman, I found that the rotary 
motion was strongest during her most negative periods, which was 
usually about the second and third day subsequent to the com- 
mencement of the menstrual flow ; and that Storing this period, I 



300 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

could readily change the motion of the coin while held by her, simply 
by concentrating the action of my mind upon her, even without 
physical contact ; and this I could do as often as she would become 
mentally passive in the matter, though at the time she was unaware 
that I was paying any attention to her. Many females who partake 
more largely of the masculine temperament and disposition, are not 
able to produce the rotary but only the oscillatory movement. In 
fact, it is a successful method of testing the strength of the mascu- 
line or feminine qualities of either man or woman, for an effemi- 
nate man will produce about the same effect as a masculine woman. 
The greatest success in this experiment results only from the two 
extremes of character. The more constitutionally positive or 
masculine the man, and the more negative or feminine the woman, 
the more readily will a coin yield to the influence of each. Persons 
have frequently failed in this experiment, from the fact that the 
parties concerned were too closely allied to each other in their sex- 
ual characteristics. But not only this, woman alternates to a greater 
or less degree between the two phases of life ; and the more nega- 
tive she is at one period the more positive she is at another. Hence 
an experiment which would meet with success while she is in a 
negative condition would fail while she is in a positive one. 

These experiments are highly important, not only in showing 
the reciprocal influence of the sexes by which the conditions of 
each becomes greatly modified by the influence of the other ; but 
will also furnish the key to unlock many other mysteries ; for if 
we can demonstrate the existence of a law in any one department 
of nature, it is easy to trace its action through every other. 

The lightness of inflammable gas is well known. When blad- 
ders, of any size, are filled with it, they rise upwards, and float in 
the air. Now, it is a most curious fact, ascertained by Mr. Knight, 
that the fine dust, by means of which plants are impregnated one 
from another, is composed of very small globules, filled with this 
gas, — in a word, of small air balloons. These globules thus float 
from the male plant through the air, and striking against the 
females, are detained by a glue prepared on purpose to stop them, 
which no sooner moistens the globules than they explode, and their 
substance remains, the gas flying off which enabled them to float. 
A provision of a very similar kind is also, in some cases, made to 
prevent the male and female blossoms of the same plant from 
breeding together, this being found to hurt the breed of vegetables, 
just as breeding hi* and in does the breed of animals. It is con- 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 301 

t rived that the dust shall be shed by the male blossoms before the 
female is ready to be affected by it, so that the impregnation be 
performed by the dust of some other plant, in this way the breed 
is crossed. The gas with which the globules are filled, is most 
essential to this operation, as it conveys them to great distances. 
A plantation of yew trees has been known, in this way, to impreg- 
nate another several hundred yards off. It is well understood by 
gardeners, that in planting beds of strawberry vines, there is a lia- 
bility of their being all of one sex, in which case they are never 
known to yield any fruit. 

We have seen that polarity is a characteristic of nature in her 
every department, and it may strictly be said to be a universal 
principle. This is clearly illustrated in the magnet, the centre of 
which has no perceptible magnetic force, but which force increases 
as we approach the extremities, where its greatest power is mani- 
fested. But break it into two, or a thousand fragments, and the 
same characteristic will attend each separate piece. By following 
out this dual principle, we find that all things, both animate, and 
inanimate are paired — marriage being universal. It exists in the 
different parts of the same individual organism, as well as between 
two distinct entities opposite in sex, of the same genera ; and thus 
we find that God has created every thing upon the double or dual 
principle. Mineral substances are held together by cohesive force, 
or the marriage of individual particles. The same is true of the 
fluids. In the vegetable kingdom also, every thing is beautifully 
halved — each leaf is divided by a central seam, and every seed 
contains two distinct and separate parts held in union by their 
affinity for each other, and become prolific only thereby. 

In the animal kingdom, we find the same law ; each separate 
organ is dual in form and action. There are two lobes to the 
brain, lungs, liver and heart; and all of the remaining internal 
viscera, which appear as one, have a positive and negative action. 
There are the same positive and negative forces between the right 
and left side of the body ; each faculty and function, holding a 
coopposite relation to its fellow — two arms, two legs, two eyes, two 
ears, two nostrils ; even the tongue and lips, are divided by a per- 
pendicular line, so that there are two halves to each. Thus it is 
that each created being is married within itself, first, particle to 
particle ; second, organ to organ ; third, function to function ; 
without which existence could not for a moment be maintained. 
Ascending still higher in the scale, we find the same spiritual 



302 THE CONSTITUTION OE MAN. 

duality. In the mind there are two chief faculties, viz : will and 
understanding ; and these subdivide into a thousand parts or offi- 
ces, and extend into every avenue, and the most minute things of 
life. Such is marriage in the organic structure, and mental qualities 
of the individual. 

Next comes the marriage of one individual to another. And 
here we must first inquire ; what constitutes the characteristic dis- 
tinction of sex ? It is not the difference in the mere outward 
physical form, for this is the result of the more interior principle. 
Organically, male and female have the same sexual organs, 
but in a reverse action and form. They are both fashioned on a 
common model ; so that previous to the third month of intra- 
uterine life, no distinction is perceptible. But the contrast grows 
more and more apparent, until they arrive at puberty, when the 
peculiar characteristics of the sexes become fully developed. 

And here a wonderful phenomenon takes place, in connection 
with the secrets of life, — a new action is set up which changes the 
whole moral and physical aspects of the human being. The geni- 
tal glands become matured, and establish anew force in the constitu- 
tion, and awakens new r feelings and desires in the mind. In the male, 
the larynx enlarges, and the voice becomes lower in pitch, as well 
as rougher and more powerful ; and parts of the face covered with 
beard, and virility becomes established. In the female, the voice 
becomes more soft and winning, the movements more graceful and 
comely, the affections more powerful and easily awakened, a depo- 
sition of fat takes place over the whole surface of the body, — 
giving to the person that roundness and fullness, which are so 
attractive to the opposite sex, at the period of commencing woman- 
hood. Cotemporary with these changes, her menstrual flow 
becomes established, indicating not only her aptitude for procrea- 
tion, but also her ability to become a helpmeet for her husband.* 

The period of life in which these changes take place, varies with 
the sex, climate, and condition ; usually in the male, from fourteen 
to sixteen ; in the female, from thirteen to fifteen years of age. 
It is earlier in warm climates than in cold ; and in densely-popu- 
lated manufacturing towns, than in thinly peopled agricultural dis- 
tricts. Precociousness is enhanced, both by warmth of climate, 
and by an early and too intimate mingling of the sexes, prevent- 
ing the maturity of the physical constitution, and the perfection of 

* For further particulars, see " Menstruation," in the chapter on the laws of health 
and disease. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 303 

the moral powers.* Woman's ability of procreation, usually ceases 
about the age of forty-five ; but the virility of man, continues to a 
much later period of life, and in many cases, where he has abstain- 
ed from early abuses, his virile powers remain good, up to the age 
of ninety, and even a hundred. 

The primary distinction, however, between the sexes, grows out 
of the relative decree of the electrical and magnetic forces inhe- 
rent in the original germ from which each derived their existence ; 
man being more electric or material than woman, and woman more 
magnetic or spiritual than man. The magnetic, is a higher or 
more interior principle than the electric, and as such is positive to 
it ; so that woman is both more intuitive in her perceptions, and 
more positive in her will, than man ; but man is more rational and 
positive in the understanding, than woman. Woman is the ulti- 
mater of man's forces on the material plane ; man the ultimater of 
woman's forces on the mental. She forms and externalizes his 
re-productive properties ; he forms and externalizes her intuitions. 
She impregnates him with love which quickens his rationality and 
ultimates through the judgment. He impregnates her with wis- 
dom which quickens her intuitions, and ultimates through the per- 
ceptions. But so far as the parties are living a life of disorder, 
their forces produce a direct opposite effect. On the one hand, 
woman subverts man's rationality, and he ultimates thoughts 
which are only intellectual monstrosities ; and on the other, man 
subverts woman's intuitions, and she ultimates perceptions which are 
a perfect counterpart of his thoughts ; for her perceptions are as 
much the result of his condition, as is his rationality of hers. 

Probably no class of persons ever furnished a more striking 
illustration of this principle than the spiritual media of the present 
time. Promiscuously mingling with the most depraved of human- 
ity, each sex is stimulated to an unusual degree of mental activity 
by the forces imbibed from the other through a forbidden com- 
merce, the stimulus of which many of them honestly believe to be 
spiritual inspiration. And as every force will find some expression, 
either orderly or disorderly, the males are constantly giving birth 

*Haller states that in the warm regions of Asia, the catemenia appears from the 
eighth to the tenth year ; and in Switzerland, Britain, and other temperate regions, 
at the age of twelve or thirteen, and later the further we ascend toward the north. 
The same view has been held by nearly all subsequent writers on the subject, and 
they infer that animals, like plants, reach maturity sooner in hot than in cold 
climates. Dewees says, that menstruation occurs later in our northern than in 
our southern states. 



304 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

to the most senseless harangues and insane sophistry which ever 
fell from the lips of depraved mortals ; and the females are con- 
stantly having "spiritual impressions" which are in perfect keep- 
ing with this insane sophistry — one sees what the other affirms. 
Nor can it be otherwise ; for a marriage, however brief in its dura- 
tion, will be sure to beget results corresponding to the condition of 
the parties. Rationality and sophistry, like grapes and thorns, 
spring from two adverse conditions. True, the derangement of 
the re-productive forces, forms the material basis for spiritual infes- 
tations and obsessions, but I am convinced from much observation, 
that by far the largest share of all the impressions and .perceptions 
of this people are the direct result of a deranged condition of the 
conjugal forces, rather than any spiritual inspiration. 

Man and woman were created as the highest representatives of 
two directly opposite but correlative principles, hence sustain an 
immediate coopposite relation to each other ; and the highest state 
to which either can ever attain, is to properly fill their respective 
relations — he a relation of rational activity or wisdom ; she the 
relation of affectionate passivity, or love. As the strength of the 
magnet depends upon the intensity of its two opposite poles ; so 
the perfection of human character depends upon the rationality or 
masculinity of man, and the affection or femininity of woman. 
And so far as they recede from these conditions they fail to fill their 
divinely appointed duties, and the man grows more and more 
feminine, and the woman more and more masculine, until they 
reciprocally cease to exert any proper influence over each other. 
Moral and social weakness arises from the faults and mischievous 
idea of harmony in likeness, rather than a union of opposites. 
The equality of the sexes does not consist in the destruction of the 
positive and negative forces, but in their harmonious action. 
Upon this subject the greatest ignorance still prevails. 

Much has been said and written in behalf of " woman's rights," 
claiming her equality with man. With equal propriety we might 
set up the plea that man is equal to woman ; for inasmuch as both 
belong to the same generic species, having their birth from one 
common parentage, hence coordinate, no rational person will pre- 
tend to ignore their perfect equality. The only question which can 
arise is, in what does this equality consist ? If we keep in view 
the fact that the wider they differ in respect to sexual qualities, the 
more they attract each other, and the more orderly their legitimate 
sphere of action becomes, there will be but little difficulty in settling 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 305 

this mooted question. Were the forces of the negative pole of a 
magnet to recede from the extremity to the centre, the action 
would be lost so that the positive pole would have nothing to sustain 
it, or from which it could react, and vice versa. The same law 
operates with equal force between the sexes. The nearer they 
approach each other in quality and pursuit, by losing their distinc- 
tive characteristics, the less the reciprocal attraction, and the less 
efficient they become in the discharge of their respective duties 
towards each other. 

A few of the more masculine and grosser class of women, who 
are so far removed from the true feminine qualities as to loose 
sight of the proper sphere and relation of women, have attempt- 
ed to so change the order of society as to destroy, to a large extent, 
the social distinction between the sexes. Having failed to reach 
the goal of their misdirected ambitions, or felt the injustice of the 
small compensation for woman's labor, they have receded from the 
true womanly sphere, and struck out for a central position, loosing 
more upon the one hand than they gain upon the other. Thus 
shorn of the higher feminine qualities, while, at the same time, 
they have neither the physical nor mental constitution to attain to 
the masculine, they have become social hermaphrodites, equally 
uninteresting to both parties. Effeminate men, also, in like man- 
ner, have slipped over and taken up the pursuits more properly 
belonging to women, and have become as uninteresting to the 
higher order of woman, as those positive women are to men. 
Much of the disorders of society have arisen from their mischievous 
influence ; for their effects have operated far more in establishing 
a wanton familiarity between the sexes, and a disrespect for each 
other, than in any real elevation or improvement in the con- 
ditions of either. Nor could it have been otherwise, for it is 
evident that as the distinctive characteristics of the sexes are 
destroyed, they cease to respect the chastity of each other. 

A striking example of this is furnished by a society in Oneida 
county, State of New York, consisting of some eight hundred 
or more members, calling themselves Christian Perfectionists. In 
their secular pursuits they make no distinction of sex, — in the 
shop and the field, men and women work together at the same 
avocation ; and on retiring, each selects a partner for the night. 
They ignore the sanctity of marriage vows, which may have been 
plighted previous to their becoming members of this society, and 
contend that physical health and spiritual harmony are promoted 



306 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

by an unrestrained intercourse of the sexes, — confined, however, 
within the limits of their own order. This promiscuous commerce 
soon destroys all sense of delicacy among them. They assured 
me that they did not regard any familiarity, of whatever nature, 
with the persons of each other as any breach of modesty. The 
sense of modesty, which usually characterizes refined associations, 
they believe to be unchristian, and the natural fruits of an unsanc- 
titied condition, — that purity does not consist in restraint, but in 
a conscientious approval of the broadest liberty. The women 
become gross and masculine, without taste or refinement ; the men 
vulgar, weak and effeminate. Neither present to the visitor any 
of those qualities which can in the least attract or interest a cul- 
tivated taste, or secure respect, other than for their apparent 
sincerity. 

The ridiculous and deplorable extremes of fanaticism, into which 
mankind wander, whenever they cut loose from the Scripture 
doctrine of marriage, clearly show how victorious are the passions 
over reason, and how little the real philosophy pertaining to this 
most important subject is understood. No nation, however far 
advanced in the arts and sciences, or enlightened in literature, has 
ever been able, without Divine instruction, to form any thing like 
a healthy and judicious regulation in the associations of the sexes. 
Even the philosophical and classical Greeks, and the grave, digni- 
fied and noble Romans, proved themselves wholly inadequate to 
such undertakings ; and admitted into their social regulations such 
laws and customs as were unjust to woman, and corrupting to the 
morals of both parties. Strange as it may seem, women, in many 
respects, were better treated among the barbarous nations of the 
north of Europe, — among the Scandinavians, Germans, and 
Franks, — than in either Greece or Rome. True, their lives were 
hard and rude, but they were held in unbounded respect and ven- 
eration ; and usually accompanied the men to the field of battle, 
animated their courage, assisted at their councils, and were the 
honorable hostages of treaties of peace. They were the sustainers 
not the participants, in the masculine duties. 

In view of the facts and philosophy set forth in this chapter, as 
well as that in " Spirit and Matter," it will be seen that nature, in 
its every department, has been established upon the bi-sexual princi- 
ple, which principle is the result of -the coalescence of Divine Love 
and Divine Wisdom, first giving birth to atoms, out of which 
worlds and all their varied appurtenances are formed, and whose 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 307 

existences are maintained only by the perpetual influent forces of 
their Creator. 

It now devolves upon me to speak more particularly, of the 
polarity of individuals ; after which I shall consider the attractive 
forces of the sexes, and designate the line of travel of the magnetic 
currents, informing a perfect social sphere ; and third, set forth in as 
clear and philosphical light as lam capable, what constitutes adul- 
tery, and point out the cause of conjugal discords. 

First, the polarity of individuals. 

A magnetized bar of iron exhibits at its two extremities, pre- 
cisely opposite conditions, — one positive, the other negative ; and 
whatever electrified bodies are repelled by the one, are attracted in 
the same degree by the other; the negativeness of one extremity 
being in exact ratio to the positiveness of its fellow. In other 
words, the excitation of one species of electricity, is always accom- 
panied by the excitation of the other ; both being produced in 
equal degrees. The phenomenon here exhibited, is an expression of 
a universal law, and defines what I wish to be understood by 
polarity. 

Again : a Voltaic battery is composed of alternate layers of cop- 
per and zinc, the galvanic force being increased in proportion to the 
number and size of the plates, and the strength and purity of the 
saline or acid fluids employed to chemically act upon them. Their 
action is in no way diminished, though a greater or less distance 
may intervene between each separate pair of plates, provided they 
are connected by some suitable conducting medium, that shall span 
the intermediate space. All organic structure is arranged on a sim- 
ilar principle, but immensely differing in the perfection and adapta- 
tion of its parts, and the harmonious action of the whole. The living 
organism, therefore, may be said to be an electro-magnetic machine 
varying in intensity of action, according to the complication of its 
structure, and the susceptibility of its parts. Each separate organ, 
however minute, or however widely differing from every other 
in its structure and office, like the atoms out of which it is formed, 
or the plates of a galvanic pile, have both a positive and negative 
side, rendering it within itself a pair, while at the same time as a unit, 
it holds a relation to other organs, corresponding to that of its indi- 
vidual parts to each other. The outer and inner surface of the 
nervous fibres, are governed by the same law. 

The brain is the great positive pole of the whole organic structure 
and counterbalances the negative action of the body ; and the body, 



308 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

in its turn, counterbalances the positive action of the brain — like 
the two poles of the battery, are mutually dependent upon each 
other for the maintenance of their existence. Mind and body are 
coopposite forces ; the strength of one is as the health of the other. 
But the brain itself is divided into the greater and lesser lobes, the 
cerebrum and cerebellum, which are married into a reciprocal action 
upon each other, and from this union issues every other principle 
of life. Each of these, however, are separated by strong mem- 
branes (falx major and falx minor) dividing them into distinct 
hemispheres, which alike are composed of a Cineritious and Medul- 
lary substances, and which act and react upon each other; the 
right side maintaining a positive relation to the left. 

That the encephalon, to which every degree of mind belongs, 
whether in the form of instinct, or its still higher form of intelligence, 
is the most positive of all the organic structure, will not.be disputed 
by any intelligent physiologist. Whenever the full force of its action 
is brought to bear upon any other part of the body it secures 
obedience to its behest. Its imaginations may so far elevate or 
depress the functions of other organs as to cause death by becom- 
ing either an over-stimulus or a sedative to their action ; or it may 
so change the whole pathological condition of the vital currents as 
to either unduly excite the secretions or wholly suppress their 
operations. The flow of saliva, for example, is stimulated by the 
idea of food, especially that of a savory character. The lachry- 
mal secretion, again, which is continually being formed to a small 
extent, for the purpose of bathing the surface of the eye, is poured 
out in great abundance, under the moderate excitement of the 
emotions, either of joy, tenderness, or grief, while in violent 
emotions its action may be wholly suspended. The mammary secre- 
tions, both in quantity and quality, are largely under the control 
of the mind. On the one hand, a father, by the constant concen- 
tration of the force of his will, has so changed the natural order of 
his condition, as to render him competent of sustaining his offspring 
by the lacteal secretion from his own breast ; and on the other, a 
mother, by a sudden and violent fit of passion, has so altered the 
qualities of this secretion as to cause it to become a most deadly 
poison to her nursing infant. All the other functions are equally 
subject to its action. Hence, the cerebrum is the positive or con- 
trolling force of all the other functions of the human organism. 
It is capable of effecting any moral change it may desire, or of 
producing various physical alterations in the organic structure. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 309 

Moreover, it is the immediate receptacle of all the higher spiritual 
forces, (for God controls man through his rationality, but the 
Devil controls him through his emotions,) and therefore, orderly 
subordinate only to the Divine. Hence, whenever it yields to any 
other influence, it becomes itself subject to that over which it shall 
bear rule. 

But the cerebellum is negative, and hence receptive of the cere- 
brum, but positive to the body. It is through this that all Material 
forces find access to the soul, over which, in an orderly condition, 
the soul has control. Or, to change the form of expression, the 
cerebrum, according to the degree of its rationality, is the medium of 
connection with, and influx from, the Divine ; while the cerebellum 
is the medium of connection with, and influx from, the natural. 
The harmonious action of these two forces, establishes the Church* 
in the individual, a Church based upon the material elements, hav- 
ing the Divine as its animating principle. They are the Heavens 
and the Earth, which, in the beginning, God created, and divided 
the waters which were under the firmament, from the waters 
which were above the firmament, the firmament corresponding to 
our atmosphere, being the medium of connection between the two 
forces, as the atmosphere is the medium of connection between 
the forces of the Earth and Sun. 

In order for a better understanding of this important subject, 
we will consider the Brain under three distinct divisions, viz : the 
upper, middle and lower lobes. These are the three discrete 
degrees of altitude, corresponding to the Earth, the Atmosphere 
and Space. So far from these being arbitrary divisions, the organic 
structure itself fully sustains them. For the upper portion of the 
cerebrum is divided by the falx major, a scythe-shaped mem- 
brane which dips down to the corpus callosum, into two equal 
parts, called hemispheres ; but no such divisions are found in 
the lower or inferior surface. But each of these hemispheres 
below the corpus callosum is subdivided into three lobes, Ante- 
rior, Middle and Posterior, corresponding to the three lateral 
degrees, or degrees of longitude. The divisions are here changed 
from 'perpendicular to horizontal, or ante-posterior position, clearly 
indicating a universal sphere of action, on the plane of the brute 
without any reference to higher or lower, but where the Spiritual 
and Material forces meet and give birth to Use. Or, Scripturally 

* I here use the tefti Church to designate a principle, not an institution -r* the 
institution is the result of the principle. 
40 



310 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

speaking, it is the " firmament in the midst of the waters," which 
" divides the waters from the waters," and becomes Heaven when- 
ever maintained in order, and Hell when in disorder.* The 
following diagram will aid in the illustration of my idea : 




It will be seen by this diagram, that I make four grand divisions 
in the Encephalon, consisting of three distinct planes, or two conju- 
gal pairs ; first, Spirit and Matter ; second, Direction and Opera- 
tion,- 2 — the material being negative to the spiritual ; and operation 
to the directing. Their orderly condition only, is here spoken of. 
The spiritual plane embraces veneration, conscientiousness, benev- 
olence, firmness, hope, wonder, ideality, imitation, cautiousness, 
self-esteem and approbativeness. These faculties, phrenologi- 
cally termed sentiments, and which metaphysicians denominate 
emotions, are furthest removed from the centre of nervous 
action, and can affect it only mediately. They give a peculiar 
vividness and intensity to all the other faculties, while at the same 
time they greatly modify their condition, and control their mode of 
expression. The voice itself becomes harsh and grating, or soft 
and sonorous, according to the extent of their influence over the 
mental powers. 

Phrenologists have considered this group, except the three last 
named, as belonging peculiarly to man, in contradistinction to the 
brute. But from this opinion I claim the privilege of dissenting. 
* Gen. 1 : 6—8. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 311 

To me it is clearly evident that Veneration is the only faculty which 
strictly belongs exclusively to Man, and that each of the others, to a 
greater or less extent, has at least a rudimental existence in some 
of the higher order of animals ; but without that convoluted, form, 
which is essential to give them any great vigor of action. For it 
should here be borne in mind, that the brain forms an exception to 
the general plan on which the elements of ganglionic centres are 
arranged, in having its vesicular substance on the exterior, instead 
of in the central part of the mass. By this arrangement, the ves- 
icular matter, which constitutes the source of nervous power, is 
disposed in such a manner, as to present a very large surface, 
instead of being aggregated in a more compact manner. The 
purpose of this arrangement is further evident, from the fact, 
that in the higher forms of cerebral structure, we find a provision for 
a still greater extension of the surface, through which the vesicular 
matter and the blood-vessels may come into relation ; this being 
effected by the plication of the layer of vesicular matter into " convo- 
lutions," which drop into the sulci or furrows between which, the 
highly vesicular membrane known as the pia mater, dips down, send- 
ing multitudes of small vessels from its surface, into the substance 
which it invests. By this infinitely wise arrangement, the greatest 
possible extent of surface is brought within the smallest possible com- 
pass, so that in the human cerebrum when its convolutions are unfold- 
ed, it is estimated to cover about six hundred and seventy square 
inches. The brain of the rabbit, and many of the lower animals, 
is smooth, and it is found that the number and depth of the convo- 
lutions are increased as we ascend in the scale of organization, so 
that comparative anatomy demonstrates, that intelligence is aug- 
mented in the ratio of the increase of the convolutions. In the 
early period of human existence, there is yet no trace of that 
complicated arrangement of the cerebral surface, which is so strik- 
ing in the adult brain, the convolutions commencing about the 
sixth month of utero-gestation, and continuing to increase until 
the maturity of the mental powers. 

These facts are of no little importance in determining, not only 
man's relation to the brute, but also the relation of different gene- 
ric species of animals to one another ; for it would seem that from 
the mollusca to man, each successive grade embraces within 
itself the nervous qualities of all below it ; which by their combi- 
nation, blossom into a higher grade of life ; so that each class 
of sentient beings, are so many wheels in the great machinery, 
which Infinite Wisdom has devised for the creation of immortal 



312 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

and intelligent creatures ; and that within man is folded up every 
condition or principle of all antecedent existence. 

From these considerations it will be seen that nervous action is 
in proportion to the extent of the vesicular surface, and that it is 
increased more by its convolutions than by the size of the brain. 
The convolutions of veneration in the highest grade of develop- 
ment, are deeper than in any other part of the encephalon, which 
fact clearly shows that it was designed by the Creator to .sustain the 
greatest physiological action. But in the brute the organs that 
correspond to those which are contiguous to veneration in man, 
present nearly or quite a smooth surface; and as a necessary result 
manifest the most feeble existence. But this by no means proves 
that they are wholly wanting ; for however large they might be, they 
could never give birth to the higher qualities of the same organs in 
man, for in him these are impregnated by the more positive influ- 
ence of veneration, and this the brute does not possess. 

It is evident that thos3 portions of benevolence, hope and firm- 
ness, which are bounded by veneration, have a more special refer- 
ence to a religious life, while the more remote parts of the same 
organs turn more to the material side (for every organ has a 
positive and negative phase) as it is often the case that persons 
give from friendly considerations, while, at the same time, they never 
think of donating from any religious motive ; or a man may be 
firm in selfishness, but never have any fixed purpose of right ; and 
though he may be hopeful in the affairs of this life, he may seldom 
bestow a moment's consideration upon the next. It is well known 
that a large portion of mankind live almost exclusively upon the 
animal plane, differing from the brute far more in intelligence than 
in religion. This can be accounted for upon no other principle than 
the "fall," by which man becomes so far inverted in the order of 
his nature as to make the material paramount to the spiritual. Nev- 
ertheless, he can never deprive himself of the influence which flows 
through veneration, for this is a fixed condition of his organic 
structure. But he may misdirect its action, and in so doing he 
intensifies the animal life with the superior potency of the religious 
forces, and in this way becomes far more brutish than the brute 
himself. 

While it is freely granted that the manifestations of hope, 
wonder, and those forms of benevolence and firmness which are 
adjacent to veneration, are scarcely, if at all, perceptible in the dog, 
horse, elephant, or orang outang ; I maintain that their modes of 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 313 

expression, more peculiar to the material life, in contradistinction to 
the spiritual, are nearly or quite as plainly seen in them as in the 
lower forms of human beings. For example, the dog's generous 
protection of those intrusted to his care, the fidelity with which 
many species of fowls supply their companions with food, especially 
durino- incubation, and the evident commiseration which animals 
feel for the distress of each other, clearly exhibit the rudiments of 
benevolence ; while the stubbornness of the ass, and the pride of the 
peacock, give undisputable evidence that firmness in one, and self- 
esteem in the other, are quite as strong as in man. It cannot be 
doubted by any person who has attentively studied the character 
of the lower animals, that many of them possess physical endow- 
ments, corresponding to those which we term the intellectual pow- 
ers and moral feelings even in the higher orders of human species ; 
but in proportion as these are undeveloped, in that proportion is 
the animal under the dominion of those instinctive impulses, which, 
so far as its own consciousness is concerned, may be designated as 
blind and aimless ; but which are ordained by the Creator for its 
protection from danger, and for the supply of its natural wants. 
The same may be said of the human infant, or of the idiot, in 
whom the reasoning powers are undeveloped, and who are unable 
to make due discrimination between right and wrong. And, 
furthermore, it is no unfrequent occurrence that highly intellectual 
adult persons, by a vicious course of life, so far destroy the moral 
principle as to fall below the brute, so far as righteous discrimination 
is concerned. But this does not prove the non-existence of venera- 
tion, but only its perverted action. 

We maintain, therefore, that all lower forms have reference to 
the human form according to the degree of their capacity of merging 
into the human ; so that each intermediate stage from the mollusca 
to man are but the successive depots on the journey of primordial 
elements, as they emanated from God, to their final destiny in the 
Divine form. No being can possibly be created until all the collateral 
forms of uses necessary to the full perfection of its own use have 
been created before it. Hence the appearance of the orang outang 
only indicated that the time for the creation of man was drawing 
near. The animal contains all the embryonic principles of the 
human constitution, with the grand exception of veneration ; and 
the influent forces which man receives through this function, is the 
primeval cause of all the difference between the two. Once shut 
out the light which flows in through the spiritual perceptions and 



314 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

man becomes an ape. Hence all men become beastly in the ratio 
as they become irreligious. Swedenborg says that devils are seen 
walking upon all fours as beasts. Where men are seen in their 
representative characters this must be but an inevitable and legiti- 
mate result of their condition ; for having destroyed their religious 
life, which constitutes their manhood, they have nothing but their 
beastly character remaining. 

From these considerations it will" be seen that Veneration is the 
only faculty strictly peculiar to man ; and that it constitutes the 
primary distinction between him and the brute. By the introduction 
of this new and more potent force, all of the contiguous organs are 
not only much enlarged, and the number and depth of their con- 
volutions increased, but they are also greatly intensified in their 
action. Like the extremities of an arch, which, by gradual 
ascending curves approach each other, until they are mutually 
sustained by the key-stone, the animal creation gradually rises in 
the scale of organization until it reaches Man, who stands as the 
ultimate representative of all sentient beings below him ; and 
through whom, by the proper exercise of Veneration, they are 
brought into a conjunction with, and an orderly subordination to, 
the Divine Being. 

I have before shown that the elements which make up the ani- 
mal existence have their immortality of form only in man, — not 
that man is developed up from the animal ; but being a distinct 
and superior creation, so constituted as to absorb their peculiar 
qualities, that in him they may become conjoined to their Creator, 
and in this way complete the cycle of all organic existence. All 
material growth is chiefly made up from imponderable elements. 
The plant and tree respire through their leavee and increase 
thereby ; and it cannot be denied that the rose and the oak are 
indebted to the moss and the lichen for their existence. Principles 
have their birth from God, and are as immortal as their progen- 
itor. Vegetation matures and decays to give birth to higher forms 
of life. There is no death of primeval elements or particles, — 
these can only change their outward form or mode of existence. 
And as each successive grade of plants ultimates in the higher 
forms of vegetable life, so every element which enters into the 
composition of the various grades of sentient creatures culmi- 
nates in man, where, in virtue of Veneration which renders him 
immediately receptive of the Divine, they reach an immortality of 
form. This form having its birth in the natural world must for- 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 315 

ever maintain the conditions of its earthly existence. For as the 
palm and deadly-nightshade alike preserve their identity and 
qualities, though removed to other climes ; so the righteous and 
the wicked establish immutable conditions, while in connection 
with their material organization. The material is the ultimate 
basis of the spiritual, and the immortal body is tht concretion of 
the finest and most subtle elements of the mortal, as is the water- 
lilv of the soil ; whence the spiritual becomes unalterably fixed 
when divorced from the natural. 

The phrenological organs viewed as cerebral ganglia, designed to 
perform specific use, are the constitutional faculties for the manifes- 
tation of divine principles. They create nothing, but only give 
expression to what already exists, — the media of bringing the con- 
servated forces of the Creator into conscious individual activity. 
Hence, when we speak of veneration, conscientiousness, benevolence, 
language, constructiveness, combativeness, etc., it will be under- 
stood that we allude to principles which these several organs have 
been constituted to express — each alike in their proper sphere of 
action. The cerebrum is so arranged, that in an orderly condition, 
it miniatures the whole heavens, and contains within itself the 
conditions of receptivity of the Triune God, viz.: will, wisdom and 
operation ; or goodness, truth and proceeding. In this consists 
man's ability to image his Maker. The harmonious union of all 
his faculties, constitute heaven ; their discord, hell. This rests upon 
the cerebellum as its fellow or coopposite principle, without which 
neither could exist, for the positive and negative are maintained by 
a reciprocal action. The " firmaments " between the Heavens 
and the Earth constitute the plane of operation, comprising what 
is usually termed the selfish propensities. 

The Cerebellum embraces all those principles connected with the 
voluntary movements of the body, acting in subordination to the 
will. The classes of sentient beings which have the greatest 
variety of movements, and which require for them the most perfect 
combination of a large number of separate muscular actions, have, 
taken collectively, the largest cerebellums. If we consider man 
in the number and variety of movements which he is capable of 
executing, and the complexity of their combination, although far 
inferior to many of the lower animals in the power of performing 
various particular kinds of movements, it will be seen that he far 
surpasses them all ; and no other creature has relatively so large a 
cerebellum. Whereas, in the reptile, such as the crocodile and the 



316 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

frog, which have scarcely more than a single form of movement, 
the diameter of the cerebellum is but a mere fraction more than 
that of the spinal cord. 

Physiological experiments clearly demonstrate the correctness of 
the position here set forth. Flourens found that when the cere- 
bellum was being removed by successive slices, the animals became 
restless, and their movements were irregular : and by the time 
that the last portion of the organ was cut away, the animals had 
entirely lost the power of springing, flying, walking, standing, and 
preserving their equilibrium, — in short, of performing any com- 
bined muscular movements, which are not of a simply reflex 
character. When an animal in this state was laid upon the back, 
it could not recover its former position ; but it fluttered its wings 
and did not lie in a state of stupor. When placed in an erect 
position, it staggered and fell back like a drunken man, — not, 
however, without making efforts to maintain its balance. When 
threatened with a blow, it evidently saw it, and endeavored to 
avoid it. It did not seem that the animal had in any degree lost 
voluntary power over its several muscles ; nor did sensation appear 
to be impaired. The faculty of combining the actions of the mus- 
cles in groups, however, was completely destroyed ; except so far 
as those actions (as that of respiration) were dependent only upon 
the reflex function of the spinal cord. The experiments afforded 
the same results, when made upon each class of vertebrated ani- 
mals. Rolando, Magendie, Bouillaud, Hertwig, and Longet, have 
made similar experiments with like results. Similar results also 
take place in the human being, in consequence of those diseases 
or accidental injuries to the spinal cord, which destroy the contin- 
uity of its parts, so that the controlling forces of the cerebellum 
cannot be transmitted through it, — clearly showing that this organ 
is immediately connected with the voluntary movements of the 
body, and has strict reference to the material side of life. 

But so far from any such phenomenon taking place in conse- 
quence of injuring the Cerebrum it is a remarkable fact, in which 
the results of all experiments agree, that no irritation or injury of 
its fibres themselves, produce either sensation or motion, but on 
being sliced away, the animal is thrown into a state resembling 
sleep. Even the thalami and corpora striata, from which fibres 
proceed upwards, and radiate to the convolutions of the Cerebrum, 
may be wounded, without the excitement of convulsive actions ; 
but if the incisions involve the tubercula quadrigemina, or the 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 317 

medulla oblongata, which are more immediately connected with 
the sensory nerves, convulsions uniformly occur. These results 
are borne out by pathological observations in man ; for it has been 
frequently remarked, when it has been necessary to separate pro- 
truded portions of the brain from the healthy part, that this has 
given rise to no sensation, even in cases in which the mind has 
been perfectly clear at the time. These facts are of no little im- 
portance in determining the peculiar office of the two lobes of the 
brain, — the upper, as is clearly indicated, having direct reference 
to the plane of the mind, or Spiritual ; the lower, to that of the 
body, or Material. 

But it here becomes necessary to warn the reader against the mis- 
take into which many have fallen, by accepting the prevalent opin- 
ion that the Cerebellum is the seat either of sensation or of the 
sexual instinct. So far from such being the case, both compara- 
tive anatomy and a rational philosophy clearly demonstrate that it 
is no more and no less than the negative pole of the mental powers ; 
by which may be understood, all those forces connected with the Cere- 
brum, whether designated moral sentiments, intellectual faculties, 
or animal propensities. It is more properly the semi-intellectual, 
but intermediate and subordinate principle, between the spiritual 
and higher functions of mere organic life, — the conjunctive medium 
between Spirit and Matter, through which all sensuous influences 
are conveyed to and from the Sensorium. The thoughts, for ex- 
ample, which the Author is penning, are formed in the Cerebrum, 
but before he can communicate them to others, they must first be 
reflected upon the Cerebellum, to which is delegated the power 
of all consentaneous movements, by the intellectual control of the 
motor impulses, and by this means the tongue, or hand, is made 
the instrument to give them expression. 

It is a physiological fact, that as we ascend in the scale of organic 
life, a new sensation ganglionic centre is added to each successive 
grade of sentient beings. The multiplication of these ganglia and 
trunks is principally due to the multiplication of the organs to be 
supplied, as in the case of the nervous ring of the star-fish, where 
the ganglia, — all of them apparently identical in function, and 
similar in the distribution of their branches, — are repeated in con- 
formity with the number of the radiating parts of the body ; or, in 
the case of the ventral nervous cord of an articulated animal, in which 
the ganglia are in like manner repeated longitudinally, in accordance 
with the number of segments of the body, and of the pairs of mem- 



318 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

bers connected with them. In other instances, the multiplication 
of ganglia is due to the increased complexity of the functions per- 
formed by a set of organs ; of which there are numerous exam- 
ples in the higher Vertebrata. In all cases, the individual gang- 
lia remain to a great extent independent of each other ; so that 
the removal of any one, ( if it can be accomplished without injury 
to the rest,) affects only the particular organ to which alone it 
ministers. The highest form of these ganglia is the chief seat of 
sensation to each generic species ; and from these alone it is easy 
to distinguish, or to point out the successive gradations of organ- 
ized beings. In the Acrita, such as the sponge, or polypus, there 
is no distinct nervous system, so far as human ingenuity can de- 
tect, but an indistinct, diffused, condition of the molecular nervous 
fibres, which give evident indications of the near approach to their 
systematic arrangement, into connected filaments or sensational 
ganglia. 

Thus, while in the lowest tribes of the Radiated division of the 
animal kingdom no nervous system has yet been discovered, in 
the higher tribes these seem to be so equally distributed as to 
afford a community of functions. For there appears to be no dis- 
tinct head or supremacy of one individual part, over another. 
Every segment of the body appears equal in its character and en- 
dowments to the remainder ; each has a ganglion appropriated to 
it ; and, as the ganglia, like the segments, are all alike, neither of 
them can be regarded as having any presiding character. But as 
soon as we ascend into the higher forms of the Molluseus classes, 
this whole condition of things is changed ; and though the bi-sex- 
ual principle is conspicuous in the conformity between the two 
sides of the body, in their lateral symmetry, ( which principle is 
strictly preserved through all of the higher grades of organic life,) 
w T hich involves a subdivision of some of the ganglia, that are single 
in the inferior tribes, into two masses, which always remain in 
connection with each other, it is found that the four or five gang- 
lia which they possess, each have distinct functions ; as may be de- 
termined by tracing the distribution of their nerves. Thus the 
ganglia themselves become paired in strict conformity to a univer- 
sal conjugal law. 

In animals composing the group Artieulata these ganglions are 
changed from a circular or globular form, peculiar to the Radiata, 
and which characterizes the primitive condition of matter, into a 
continuous line, as preparatory to the introduction of the Vertebrata, 



CARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 319 

Here the whole structure is divided into segments which have an 
obvious tendency to resemble one another ; but which, like 
successive pairs of galvanic plates, intensify the action at the 
positive extremity in exact proportion to their number, — the most 
anterior ganglia evidently having a predominating influence over 
the rest, and to which the posterior extremity holds the most 
negative relation. After this mere longitudinal form has reached 
its highest perfection, as in the case of serpents, it begins to expand 
into successive evolutions of cephalic ganglia to form a nervous 
centre where the surplus energies, so to speak, are deposited. 
There issues from the spinal cord thirty-one pairs of nerves to 
supply as many different segments of the body ; and each of these 
have a distinct or separate ganglia so that the cord becomes a distinct 
centre, or rather a collection of centres, of nervous influence, and 
which are also duplicated in many other parts of the organized 
structure. Bichat " regarded these as so many small brains, or 
centres of nervous action, independent of the gencephalon, and 
intended exclusively for organic life." For a better understanding 
of the subject I will change the form of expression, by saying 
that they are so many^airs of galvanic plates, or electro-magnetic 
machines, which cooperatively maintain the action of the body, 
from which the brain derives its chief material forces. The 
spinal cord, therefore, may, with much propriety, be denominated 
the nervo-vital plant, of which the brain is the ultimate fruit, 
perfected only in man. Remove veneration from this and man 
becomes an animal ; and as one faculty after another is destroyed, 
he descends in the scale until he again returns to the Mollusca. 

This brief synoptical view of the development of the nervous 
system was essential in order for the proper understanding of the 
true locality of the sexual instinct. In the chapter on Spirit and 
Matter I showed that sexuality was not only a constitutional con- 
dition of the primary elements out of which all things were formed, 
but was the immediate active agent in their formation ; and the 
whole tenor of the present essay is to show the universal operation 
of the same law. But if we would philosophically consider the 
instinctive impulses which attract two separate beings, differing in 
sex, into copulative association, the laws of their organic life compel 
us to designate some particular part of their structure as the seat 
of this impulse. This I shall hereafter do. 

" Dr. Gall was led to the discovery of the function of Amative- 
ness," says George Comb, " in the following manner: He was 



320 THE CONSTITUTION OF MA^ 

physician to a widow of irreproachable character, who was seized 
with nervous affections, to which succeeded severe nymphomania. 
In the violence of a paroxysm he supported her head, and was 
struck with the great size and heat of the neck. She stated 
that heat and tension of these parts always preceded a paroxysm. 
He followed out, by numerous observations, the idea suggested by 
this occurrence, of connection between the amative propensity and 
the cerebellum, and he soon established the point to his own satis- 
faction."* 

When we take into consideration the critical and philosophical 
turn of Dr. Gall's mind, it becomes a matter of no little surprise 
that he could have been so hasty in arriving at a conclusion 
evidently so erroneous. We should have supposed that the great size 
and heat of the neck, in the case here referred to, would naturally 
have suggested to him that the probable cranial seat of the difficulty 
was in the medulla oblongata rather than in the cerebellum. For 
it will be seen, |jv referring to a physiological diagram, that a large 
development of the former would have a much greater tendency 
to expand the dimensions of the neck, and in case of inflammation to 
produce in it an undue heat, than the latter^ 

I have already shown that the cerebellum is the negative and 
subordinate organ to the cerebrum, being immediately connected 
with the muscular system, and combining its movements ; and shall 
now proceed to offer a few considerations in proof that it is in no 
way especially concerned in the sexual instinct. 

Phrenologists have laid much stress upon their observations of 
the relative size of the cerebellum in different individuals, assert- 
ing that the intensity of the sexual instinct can readily be deter- 
mined by the degree of development of the organ. It has also 
been repeatedly affirmed by them, that apoplexy, hanging, and 
diseases of the cerebellum are usually attended with a correspond- 
ing excitement of the genital organs. But I trust that I shall be 
able to show that neither of these afford any evidence of the cor- 
rectness of their conclusions. " In the greatest number of Fishes, 
it is well known that no sexual congress takes place ; the seminal 
fluid being merely effused, like any other excretion, into the sur- 
rounding water ; and being thus brought into accidental contact with 
the ova, of which a large portion are never fertilized. But there 
are certain fishes, as the sharks, rays, and eels, in which copulation 
takes place after the ordinary methods. Now, on contrasting 

* System of Phrenology ; p. 108. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 321 

these two groups, we find no corresponding difference in the size 
of the cerebellum. It is true that this organ is of larger size in 
the sharks, but it is very small in the rays ; and almost rudimental 
in the eels, — in this respect, bearing a precise correspondence with 
the variety and complexity of their movements. Further, in 
many ordinary fishes which do not copulate, such as the cod, the 
cerebellum is not only larger, but more complex in structure, than 
it is in the generality of reptiles, in which the sexual instinct is 
commonly strong."* 

Comparative anatomy reveals to us a difference no less observ- 
able between the Gallinacious birds, which are polygamous, and 
the raptorial and insessorial tribes which live in pairs : it is found 
that the former, instead of having a larger cerebellum, have one 
of inferior size. Professor J. Cruveilheir, in his most excellent 
work on anatomy, informs us that there is no cerebellum in the 
Batrachia species, (such as the frog, toad, salamanders, sirens, &c.,) 
nevertheless, it is well known that the salacious tendency of the 
frog is his strongest instinct. It has been pointed out by Messrs. 
Todd and Bowman, that the spinal cord of the male frog, at the 
season of copulation, naturally possesses a state of most extraor- 
dinary excitability. At this season, he has an irresistible propen- 
sity to cling to any object, by seizing it between his anterior 
extremities. It is in this way that he seizes upon, and clings to 
the female ; fixing his thumbs to each side of her abdomen, and 
remaining there for weeks, until the ova have been completely 
expelled. This tendency is so strong and so far connected with 
the spinal cord that even decapitation will not cause him to relin- 
quish his hold, so long as he retains a sufficient amount of vital 
force to continue his position. This example affords an incontest- 
able evidence, that the sexual instinct does exist even where a 
cerebellum has never been formed. One such fact is worth more 
in assisting us to arrive at a correct conclusion in this matter, than 
any amount of mere speculative reasoning. If it be contended 
that the frog has the rudiments of a cerebellum, (which some 
anatomists admit,) it still remains to be shown that there is any 
proportion between its rudimental size and the strength of this 
instinct. 

Nothing can be more striking than the disproportion between the 
amorous tendencies of different tribes of the Mammalia, and which 
is often found to be no way in keeping with the size of the cerebellum. 

* Carpenter's Physiology. 



322 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

The kangaroo, for example, is one of the most salacious of all 
animals, and yet his cerebellum is one of the smallest to be found 
in the class. Monkeys are frequently excited to violent demon- 
strations by the sight of a human female, and when kept in solitary 
confinement usually practice nameless vices, which cannot be 
accounted for from any unusual size of the organ in question. The 
examples here cited are sufficient to set aside the verdict which 
has so often been given by Phrenologists upon this subject. It 
would be difficult to conceive of a more irrational hypothesis 
than that one-eighth of the entire encephalon is devoted to a 
single instinct. To claim that it possesses a corresponding strength 
over all other instincts, would be only to exhibit our folly. Phi- 
loprogenitiveness, cautiousness, adhesiveness and alimentiveness, 
though they occupy but a small space in comparison to the whole 
cerebellum, are even stronger both in their instinctive qualities and 
in their imperative demands for gratification, than amativeness. 
Hence, it will be seen that the law so often cited by a phrenologist, 
that " strength is proportion to size, other things being equal " — 
provided we accept their hypothesis that the cerebellum is the 
organ of sexual instinct — falls to the ground. 

Gall and his followers have asserted, over and over again, that 
the cerebellum in animals which have been castrated when young, 
is much smaller than in those which have retained their virility, — 
being in fact atroirfiied from the want of power to act. Much 
pains have been taken to ascertain the truth of their statements, 
which unfortunately for their theories, most effectually prove their 
want of soundness. The following is the result of a series of 
observations on this subject, suggested by M. Seuret,* and carried 
into effect by M. Sassaigne : The iveight of the cerebellum, both 
absolutely and as compared with that of the cerebrum, was adopted 
as the standard of comparison. This was ascertained in ten 
stallions, of the ages of from nine to seventeen years ; in twelve 
mares, aged from seven to sixteen years ; and in twenty-one geld- 
ings, aged from seven to seventeen years. It is curious, as will be 
seen by the accompanying tables, that Gall would have been much 
nearer the truth if he had said that the dimensions of the cerebrum, 
instead of the cerebellum, are usually reduced by castration. The. 
weight of the cerebrum is thus expressed in each of the foregoing 
description of animals : 
* Anat. Comp. du Systeme Nerveaux, torn. 1., p. 427. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 323 

Average. Greatest. Least. 

Stallions, gr. 433 485 35 

Mares, 402 432 33G 

Geldings, 419 566 346 

The average proportional size of the cerebellum in geldings, 
therefore, so far from being less than that which it bears in entire 
horses and mares, is positively greater; and this depends not 
only on diminution in the relative size of the cerebrum, but on its 
own larger dimensions, as the following comparison of absolute 



weights will 


show : — 












Average. 


Highest. 


Lowest. 


Stallions, 




61 


65 


56 


Mares, 




61 


66 


58 


Geldings, 




70 


76 


64* 



These results most clearly show, not only that the cerebellum 
has no special connection with the sexual instinct, but also that its 
dimensions are evidently enlarged by laborious exertions, — and 
which we have offered as another proof of its controlling influence 
over the muscular forces. Stallions are usually reserved for breed- 
ing purposes and are seldom called upon to perform any great 
amount of labor, while geldings and mares are kept much of the 
time in the harness. 

" The alleged facts," says Sir William Hamilton, " on which 
Gall and his followers establish their conclusions in regard to the 
function of the cerebellum, are the following : 

" The first is, that in all animals, females have this organ, on an 
average, greatly smaller, in proportion to the brain proper, than 
males. Now, so far is this assertion from being correct, it is the 
very reverse of truth ; and I have ascertained, by an immense in- 
duction, that in no species of animals has the female a proportion- 
ally smaller cerebellum than the males, but that in most species, 
and this according to a certain law, she has a considerable larger. 
In no animal is this difference more determinate than in man. 
Women have, on an average, a cerebellum to the brain proper, as 
1 : T ; men, as 1 : 8. This is a general fact which I have com- 
pletely established. 

" The second alleged fact is, that in impuberable animals, the 
cerebellum is in proportion to the brain proper, greatly less than 
in adults. This is equally erroneous. In all animals, long pre- 
vious to puberty has the cerebellum attained its maximum propor- 
tion. And here also, I am indebted to the phrenologists for hav- 
* Carpenter's Physiology; p. 356. 



324 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

ing led me to make the discovery of another curious law, and to 
establish the real function of the cerebellum. Physiologists have 
hitherto believed that the cerebellum of all animals, indefinitely, 
were, for a certain period subsequent to birth, greatly less, in pro- 
portion to the brain proper, than in adults ; and have taken no 
note of the differences in this respect between different classes. 
Thus, completely wrong in regard to the fact, they have necessa- 
rily overlooked the law by which it is governed. In those animals 
that have from the first the full power of voluntary motion, and which 
depend immediately on their own exertions, and on their power of 
assimilation for nutriment, the proportion of the cerebellum is as 
large, nay, larger, than in the adult. In the chicken of the com- 
mon fowl, pheasant, partridge, etc., this is the case; and most re- 
markably after the first week or ten days, when the yolk, (corres- 
ponding in a certain sort to the milk of the quadruped,) has been 
absorbed. In the calf, kid, lamb, and probably in the colt, the 
proportion of the cerebellum at the birth is very little less than in 
the adult. In those birds that do not possess at once the full 
power of voluntary motion, but which are in a rapid state of growth, 
the cerebellum, within a few days at least, after being hatched, and 
by the time the yolk is absorbed, is not less or larger than in the 
adult; the pigeon, sparrow, etc., etc.; are examples. In the 
young of those quadrupeds that for some time wholly depend for 
support on the milk of the mother, as on half-assimilated food, and 
which have at first feeble powers of regulated motion, the propor- 
tion of the cerebellum to the brain proper, is at birth very small ; 
but, by the end of the full period of lactation, it has with them, as 
with other animals, (nor is man properly an exception,) reached 
the full proportion of the adult. This, for example, is seen in the 
young rabbit, kitten, whelp, etc., in them the cerebellum is to the 
brain proper at birth, about as 1 to 14 ; at six and eight weeks 
old, about as 1 to 6. Pigs, etc., as possessing immediately the 
power of regulated motion, but wholly dependent on the milk of 
the mother during at least the first month after birth, exhibit a me- 
dium between the two classes. At birth, the proportion is in them 
as 1 to 9, in the adult, as 1 to 6. This analogy, at which I now 
only hint, has never been suspected ; it points at the new and im- 
portant conclusion (corroborated by many other facts,) that the 
cerebellum is the intra-cranial organ of the nutritive faculty, that 
term being taken in its broadest signification ; and it confirms also 
an old opinion, recently revived, that it is the condition of volunta- 
ry or systematic motion. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 325 

" The third alleged fact is, that the proportion of the cerebellum 
to the brain proper in different species, is in proportion to the 
energy of the phrenological function attributed to it. This asser- 
tion is as groundless as the others." * 

The evidence which pathology affords us is equally adverse to 
the opinion of the Phrenologists, in reference to the functions of 
this organ. Bardach informs us that the proportion of cases of 
disease of the cerebellum, in which there is any manifest affection 
of the sexual organs, is really very small, being not above one in 
seventeen. He also states that such affections do present them- 
selves, though very rarely, when the cerebrum is the seat of the 
disease. The reason for this we shall point out when we come to 
treat of the true locality of the sexual instinct. Dr. Craigie in 
speaking of cerebral hemorrhage, which gives rise to apoplexy, 
states that the parts which are the seats of this lesion may be 
arranged in the order of frequency, as follows : the corpus striatum; 
the optic thalamus ; the hemispheres ; the pons varolii ; the crura 
of the brain ; the medulla oblongata ; and the cerebellum. f 

From this conclusion, drawn from an extensive observation and 
research, it will be seen that the cerebellum is the least liable to 
produce apoplexy. Wherefore, any conclusions which may be 
drawn in reference to the venereal excitement which frequently 
accompanies this disease^ in support of the hypothesis that the 
cerebellum is the seat of the sexual instinct, is without the least 
foundation. So far as such evidence is concerned, it would favor 
the corpus striatum the most, and the cerebellum the least. The 
evidence also, which is adduced from hanging, in support of the 
same theory, is subject to precisely the same criticism. It is 
proper here to add that it has been found that mechanical irrita- 
tion of the spinal cord, and disease in its substance, much more 
frequently produces excitement of the genital organs, than do 
lesions of the cerebellum. This view is entertained by Carpenter, 
Muller, and nearly all of the most able physiologists who have 
taken a comprehensive, unbiased survey of the phenomena in 
question. 

One point more remains to be briefly considered, viz. : the stress 
which Phrenologists lay .upon their observations of the relative size 
of the cerebellum in different individuals, asserting that the inten- 
sity of the sexual instinct can readily be determined by the degree 
of development of the organ. We shall not pretend to say that 

* Metaphysics, Vol. 1, p. 652. t Watson's Practice of Physic, p. 317. 



326 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the strength of this instinct cannot be determined, though to a 
.limited degree, by the backward and downivard projections of this 
division of the brain. But that affords no proof whatever of its 
being the seat of the function usually assigned it. The peri- 
pheral organs must necessarily become displaced or removed from 
the medulla oblongata, in proportion to the enlargement of the 
central ones. 

And here I will take the occasion to remark, that it is my opin- 
ion that all of the Instinctive organs are grouped around the spinal 
cord, and below the inferior surface of the corpus callosum.* 
Thev are the first blossomings of organic life, and characterize, to 
a greater or less degree, every grade of sentient beings — increas- 
ing as we rise in the scale of organization. The convolutions may, 
with much propriety, be denominated the plane of conscious reflex 
action ; and I think it will yet be found, that each convolution is 
the seat of a distinct and separate faculty of the mind. The in- 
stincts have their birth from the mere physical organization, and 
belong to the material side of life. ' These connect directly with 
the body through the afferent or motor nerves, and may be said to 
be the superior part, of what Dr. M. Hall denominates, the excito- 
motory system. Their impulses are downward to the body, and we 
become conscious of their existence and demands, only as their in- 
fluence is conveyed back through the afferent f or reflex nerves to 
their respective convolutions. 

If this hypothesis be well founded, it will be seen that the size 
of the brain in any particular part will depend upon : first, the size 
of the instinctive organ at or near the centre ; and second, the 
extent of the convolution which is its spiritual or conscious plane of 
mental operation. If such should prove to be the case, we may 
reasonably conclude that the size of the convolutions are in keep- 
ing with the strength or intensity of the instinct ; and hence both 
unite to expand the cranium in the direction of their locality. In 
this way " power is in proportion to size," and enables practical 
Phrenologists to determine with no little accuracy the leading 
traits of character in the individual. Moreover, by this arrange- 

*This is the great transverse Commissure, situated just beneath the great lon- 
gitudinal fissures, and which connects the central hemispheres. It consists of 
nervous filaments, which originate from the grey matter of one hemisphere, con- 
verge to the centre where they become parallel, cross the meridian line, and are 
finally distributed to the corresponding parts of the hemispheres upon the opposite 
side. 

f 'Afferent nerves, are those which convey impressions towards, and Efferent those 
which convey them from the nervous centres. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 327 

ment every part of the encephalon is occupied by either instinctive 
organs or the convoluted planes of their reflex action. This also 
effectually answers the objection which Dr. Carpenter and other 
eminent physiologists have so justly brought against Gall's and 
Spurzheim's system of Cerebral Physiology, in which much of the 
peripheral surface and nearly all of the interior portions of the 
brain are left wholly without any ascertained use. 

The objection raised by Dr. Dalton, to the geographical position 
of the different mental faculties, founded upon the fact that the 
grey matter which composes the outer surface of the convolutions 
"is continuous throughout, there beino; no anatomical divisions or 
limits between its different parts, as there are between the different 
ganglia in other portions of the nervous system," * has no valid 
importance. For it is well known that although there are 31 
pairs of nerves which issue from as many different ganglia and seg- 
ments of the spinal cord, each of which performs a distinct and 
separate function, that the cord itself, from its inferior to its supe- 
rior extremity, possesses grey matter so perfectly consentaneous in 
all its parts as to have the "appearance of a continuous ganglia. 
Such being the case in regard to those ganglia which have an ex- 
clusive reference to the physical forces of the body, we cannot be 
surprised that the lines of separation between those of a mental 
character should elude our observation. 

However humiliating it may be to the pride of human beings, 
they are compelled to brook the anatomical evidence, that man 
organically is but a single grade above the brute, — having but one 
function more than they. But this one function is the immediate 
connecting link between the Human and the Divine, or rather is 
what constitutes the Human into which the Divine flows ; and is 
so important in its influence that it changes the whole physical 
conformation and the attitude from a horizontal to an erect posture, 
and adds the mental and moral qualities. So that man in contra- 
distinction to all other creatures, was made a religious being, 
capable of holding direct communication with God and of becoming 
receptive of Infinity. 

Hence, any true theory of Cerebral Physiology will receive the 
fullest support of both Comparative Anatomy and Neurological 
science. But the present system of phrenology, as Dr. Carpenter 
has well remarked, " is founded only on comparative observation 
of the physical character and cerebral conformation in different 
* Human Physiology, p. 368. 



328 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

individuals of the human species alone; evidence derived from 
comparative anatomy being admitted only so far as it corresponds 
with the system thus constructed."* 

After saying this much in refutation of the system of cerebral 
physiology introduced by Gall and Spurzheim, and which has 
been, so far as I know, universally accepted by Phrenologists, I shall 
proceed to designate the Pons Varolii or Tuber Annulare f as the 
true locality of the sexual instinct, and offer a few considerations 
in support of my hypothesis. 

By reference to an anatomical plate, it will be seen that the 
Pons Varolii is the large projecting body placed at the top of the 
medulla oblongata, upon the junction of the body of the sphenoid or 
wedge-shaped bone, situated on the median line, at the base of the 
cranium, with the basilar process of the os occipitis, between the 
anterior part of the cerebellum, and the posterior part of the 
middle lobes of the cerebrum. It, like the two lobes of the brain, 
is hemispherical on its inferior surface — about an inch in diameter, 
and divided into two halves by a superficial middle longitudinal 
fossa or cavity, with transverse medullary fibres passing from it on 
each side, which comes from the crura cerebelli. Its cineritious 
and medullary substance is much more blended with each other, 
than any other part of the brain, the latter being arranged in striae, 
which run in different directions and may be traced to the crura 
cerebri. 

I am thus particular in definitely defining the locality of this 
organ, because nature always works in perfect symmetry ; and it 
will be seen that she has wisely placed this Re-productive Instinct 
at the head of the spinal column, or the terminus of the material 
electrical forces, and at the same time, in immediate conjunction 
with the cerebrum or spiritual forces. This is the only position which 
could have been assigned it where it could rest, like a cap, upon 
the top of the nervous ganglia of the body, and at the same time, 
become the base of all the higher functions of the mind. It may, 
therefore, be correctly designated the great physiological commis- 
sure of Spirit and Matter ; for both the motor and sensory tracts 
may be distinctly separated in the Pons. Its transverse fibres not 
only surround the longitudinal bands of the crura cerebri which 

* Human Physiology. 

t The term Tuber Annulare is derived from the fact that this part of the 
encephaleon seems to embrace the several prolongations of the medulla oblongata 
like a ring. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 329 

connect the cerebrum with the spinal cord, but p ass through them ; 
so as in some degree to isolate the two lateral halves from one 
another, and to form a complete septum between the anterior and 
the posterior portions of each. The fibres of the motor tract may 
be traced upwards, chiefly in the corpora striata, whence they radi- 
ate to the hemispheres ; and downwards, chiefly into the anterior 
pyramids. From this tract arise all the motor nerves usually reck- 
oned as cranial. On tracing upwards the fibres of the sensory 
nerves, it is found that they form a part of the posterior layer of 
the crura cerebri, ultimately passing on to the thalami optici, 
whence they also radiate to the hemispheres. From this tract no 
motor nerves arise, but on tracing it downwards, into the spinal 
cord, it is found that the sensory root of its fifth pair terminate in 
it, and that the posterior roots of the spinal nerves are evidently 
connected with its continuation. There is also a layer of fibres 
ascending from the olivary bodies, which form a part of the poste- 
rior division of the crus cerebri, and separate from the anterior, by 
the transverse septum, some of which terminate in the corpora 
quadrigemina. 

The medulla oblongata is divided into four parallel divisions, viz.: 
the anterior and posterior pyramids ; the olivary and restiform 
bodies. On tracing these upwards the following is found to be 
their chief connection with the brain: 1. The fibres of the 
anterior pyramids pass through the Pons Varolii, and for the most 
part enter the crura cerebri, after which they diverge and become 
intermingled with gray matter, thus forming the corpora striata, 
and finally radiate to the convolutions of the whole cerebrum. 
These corpora striata are gray pyriform eminences, of a slightly 
brownish-gray color, which form part of the floor of the lateral 
ventricles. Willis considered them to be the residence of the soul. 
They are evidently the focal point where the converging spiritual 
forces of the central hemispheres meet to unite with the material 
— the marriage being consummated in the Pons Varolii. 2. The 
fibres of the olivary body also pass into the Pons, and there divide 
into two bands ; one proceeding upwards and forward to join the 
crus cerebri, thence to pass to the optic thalami ; whilst the other 
passes upwards and backwards into the corpora quadrigemina, which 
are situated on the superior face of the crura cerebri, just behind 
the thalami — the nates being above — and which constitute a 
means of communication between the cerebrum and cerebellum. 
3. The fibres of the true restiform bodies, as will be seen by refer- 



330 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

ring to an anatomical plate, pass entirely into the cerebellum, and 
after radiating through the medullary matter finally lose themselves 
in the cortical convolutions. In view of this arrangement, it is clear- 
ly evident that the restiform bodies are the channels of the motor 
influence. 4. The fibres of the posterior pyramids pass directly 
outwards through the crura cerebri into the thalami, whence they 
radiate to the convolutions. Just as the pyramidal bodies enter 
the Pons Varolii they become somewhat contracted in their 
thickness, but immediately after having plunged into that mass they 
separate and mingle with its cineritious substance, and then pass on 
to their respective destinations. Anatomists says " that here many 
new fibres arise and join the others ; all advancing, some of them 
disposed in layers, and some intersecting the bundles of the Pons." 
But this opinion has no other foundation than a superficial appear- 
ance. These new fibres are evidently but the terminus of the 
descending fibres of the brain ; for the filaments, as they emerge 
from the superior surface of the Pons, compose the anterior and 
outer two-thirds parts of the cerebral crura, — a mass altogether 
disproportioned to that which enters on the inferior surface. So great 
is the number of the conveying fibres which focalize in the Pons 
that it has been denominated a compound of the medullary or 
white substance of the cerebrum and cerebellum. They are cylin- 
drical, and in contact with each other as they enter the Pons ; but 
they gradually increase in size as we ascend towards the opposite 
extremity, which open like a fan, extending forward, upward and 
outwards; — their size always corresponding with that of the 
cerebral hemispheres. 

All the phenomenal facts so plentifully adduced by phrenologists 
in support of their views — such as nymphomania, disease of the 
cerebellum, the venereal excitement during hanging, etc., — may be 
as well, and even better explained, upon the hypothesis that the 
Pons is the seat of this instinct. And this hypothesis is much more 
conformable to the results of experiment and disease, than that 
Avhich locates it in the cerebellum. " A case has been recently 
communicated to the Author," says Dr. Clymer,* "in which the 
sexual desire, which had been always strong through life, but 
which had been controlled within the limits of decency, manifested 
itself, within a period of some months preceding death, in a most 
extraordinary degree ; on post mortem examination, a tumor was 
found on the Pons Varolii." 
* Notes and additions to Carpenter's Physiology, p. 355. 






MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 331 

It is conceded by all phrenologists, that a broad and full neck is 
indicative of strong sexual instinct. A moment's reflection, will 
convince any unprejudiced mind, that an enlargement of that part 
of the encephalonic mass embraced by the Pons, will inevitably 
produce this effect to a large degree ; while on the other hand, it 
is difficult to conceive in what way any enlargement of the cere- 
bellum, situated as it is behind the medulla oblongata, could have 
any direct tendency to produce that peculiar conformation desig- 
nated asa" bull neck." The osseous walls by which the anterior 
surface of the Pons is bounded, prevents any enlargement in that 
direction ; hence it can extend its dimensions only posteriorly and 
laterally ; thus giving fullness to the neck, and, at the same time, 
pressing the cerebellum backwards and downwards, so that the 
position rather than the size of the latter organ, becomes the indi- 
cator of the strength of the sexual instinct. A large size and an 
inflamed condition of the Pons, so immediately connected with the 
medulla oblongata, will necessarily produce those indications which 
first led Dr. Gall to suspect that the amative propensity is connect- 
ed with the cerebellum. This will account for the error in refer- 
ence to this function, now quite universal among the Phrenological 
school of physiologists. 

Wherever there is a living organic structure, there are two sets 
of nervous fibres, the efferent or centrifugal, and the afferent or 
centripetal. Various methods of determining the functions of 
particular nerves present themselves to the physiological inquirer. 
One source of evidence is drawn from their anatomical distribu- 
tion. For example, if a nervous trunk is found to lose itself 
entirely in the substance of muscles, it may be inferred to be 
chiefly, if not entirely, motor or efferent. But where a nerve 
passes through the muscles, with little or no ramification among 
them, and proceeds to a cutaneous or mucous surface, on which its 
branches are minutely distributed, there is equal reason to believe 
that it is of a sensory, or rather an afferent character. These two 
classes of nerves are the mediums of communication between the 
sensorium and all the other parts of the body. Impressions made 
upon the afferent fibres, are by them conveyed to the sensorium, 
and there communicate to the conscious mind, and thus give 
origin to sensations. The mind taking cognizance of these sensa- 
tions, transmits a motor impulse along the efferent trunks, to par- 
ticular muscles, and excites them to contraction, 



332 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

There is, however, minor and subordinate ganglionic centres in 
various parts of the body, from which motor impulses may pro- 
ceed ; being either the direct consequence of the sensation, acting 
involuntarily as an emotional or instinctive impulse ; or resulting 
from a more or less complicated series of intellectual operations, 
which terminate in the act of volition, or will. Comparative anat- 
omy, physiology, and the gradual increasing development of the 
nervous system in the successive tribes of animals, all furnish 
incontestable evidence that the peculiar vitality of every organ in 
the body depends, to a certain extent, upon the ganglionic nerves, 
with which they are individually associated. These, in tlieir 
united capacity, constitute the vital forces of organic life ; and 
each is sustained by the mutual cooperation of the whole. From 
their healthy and combined action the encephalonic ganglia derive 
their chief physical strength. These may be represented by an 
equal number of subordinate states, cities, and hamlets, with their 
several magistrates, each being delegated witli certain discretionary 
powers, but all under one general kingly rule. 

Travel of tlie Magnetic Forces. 

Keeping in view these fundamental principles of the nervous 
system, I shall proceed to briefly point out the line of travel of the 
imponderable or magnetic forces of the human system. 

The law of positive and negative action is universal, eacli 
sustained by their mutual relations to each other. The mind is the 
positive pole of the human structure ; and each individual faculty 
of the mind has its negative pole in its corresponding part of the 
body. Between these there is a mutual sympathy and dependence, 
so marked in its nature as to have received the intuitive acknowl- 
edgment of mankind. The fact has been discovered, and is now 
maintained by the most learned and accurate anatomists, that the 
nervous fibres are separate and distinct in their whole course 
between the brain and their remote termination in the body ; ,thus 
demonstrating that each portion of the former is connected with a 
specific portion of the latter. To keep up the communication 
between these two points there must be both motor and sensory 
nerves, whose specific office is to telegraph, so to speak, from one 
station to the other. 

" It is as absurd," says Prof. J. R. Buchanan, " to suppose that 
there is no particular organology of the body, connected with or 
corresponding to that of the brain, as to suppose there is no partic- 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 333 

ular organology of the brain corresponding to the faculties of the 
mind. For the brain sustains to the body the same relation which 
the mind sustains to the brain. This relation is one of correspon- 
dence, sympathy, and connected development. * * * This sympa- 
thetic correspondence is demonstrated by nervaurie experiments. 
All the mental and physiological phenomena which may be pro- 
duced by the application of the hands to the head for the excitation 
of the organs, may also be produced by the application of the hands 
to the body upon corresponding localities."* 

What Buchanan here denominates the " organology of the 
body," is, more properly speaking, the final terminus of the 
negative poles of the cranial organs. Any excitation of these 
produces a corresponding condition in their opposite extremity. 
In other words, the positiveness of one pole is always in exact pro- 
portion to the negativeness of the other, so that by unduly stimu- 
lating the negative pole the positive extremity is aroused into a 
corresponding action. The deplorable habits to which young 
people frequently become addicted are usually induced by physical 
application to the negative parts. 

This subject will be better understood by referring to some of the 
well known laws of electricity. Active electricity existing in any 
substance, tends always to induce the opposite or passive electrical 
state in the bodies that are near it. Hence, it is impossible to in- 
duce one electrical state, without at the same time producing the 
opposite state in the same body, or in the one which is immediately 
contiguous. The negativeness of one extremity of a magnetized 
bar of iron, for example, is always in proportion to the positiv enes s 
of the other. So, in precisely the same manner, as the cranial ex- 
tremity of any nerve becomes positive, the bodily extremity 
becomes negative, and vice versa. The workings of this law are 
so precise, that physiognomy, bodily formation, conditions and 
movements, when properly understood, are no less indicative of 
character, than cerebral size and conformation. The brain is the 
positive pole of all the bodily functions, and consequently molds 
them to its own condition ; and each part of the body necessarily 
has a correspondence with a definite part of the brain. Hence, 
any mental faculty may be excited as well by the application of the 
hand to the proper locality on the body, as to the brain itself. In 
the one case, we excite the positive, in the other, the negative pole. 

* Anthropology ; page 359, 



334 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

But their action is so perfectly reciprocal, that both extremities are 
equally affected. 

So definitely are the laws of order observed in the creation of 
man, that it is found that the negative pole occupies a higher or 
lower position in the body, in perfect keeping with the degree of 
altitude of the positive pole in the brain. For example, the poles 
extend from the top of the brain to the lungs ; from the middle, to 
the gastric region ; and from the base, to the abdomen. The an- 
terior and posterior organs of the brain, also sustain a correspond- 
ing relation to the body. So that the posterior Superior part of 
the brain, may be denominated Dorsal ; the posterior inferior, 
Cranial ; the anterior superior, Pectoral; and the anterior inferior, 
Abdominal. 

It has long been observed, that disease of the upper portion of 
the lungs, induces a hopeful and cheerful disposition ; and that gas- 
tric irritation, renders the patient fretful and morose ; while abdom- 
inal diseases, especially of the genitals, induce the most dejected 
mental condition. Alimentiveness, situated just anterior to the 
middle inferior portion of the brain, produces, when unduly active, 
an excitable, morbid, irritable, passionate, and sensual character. 
This connects distinctlv with the middle region, and affects the 
mere animal life. The Pons Varolii, situated at the top of the 
medulla oblongata, connects with the re-productive organs, and 
any abnormal condition* of these, either by over excitement or dis- 
ease, produces the most intense nervous action. Passional phrensy, 
mental irritability caused by the derangement of the nervous sys- 
tem, hysterical paroxysms, fretful and morose dispositions, and a 
large catalogue of disorders, more especially among females, are 
the common result of a derangement of the genital organs. 

Family Grotiping, 

The first fundamental law of all material existence is that one 
part of each individual entity, whether great or small, whether it 
be a single particle, or a combination of particles, holds a cooppo- 
site relation to the other ; and this, as a unit, a correlation to other 
entities. The second law, necessarily growing out of the first, is 
the family grouping of congenital forces, forces which have an 
immediate or mediate reciprocal action upon each other ; as, for 
example, the Understanding acts upon the Will : the Will upon 
the Nervous system ; the Nervous system upon the Osseous, so that 
the ultimate execution is the conservation of the primary force. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 335 

Nowhere do we find a more striking example of this principle 
than in the stellar universe. To me, the probability merges into 
a certainty, that the universal planetary system is but one stupen- 
dous connected series of worlds, infinitely too vast for human com- 
prehension, revolving in successive orders round each other, and 
all round some focal point as the Great Positive Centre. The 
vast galaxy of stars which everywhere adorn immensity are found 
to group themselves into nebulas, each of which contains myriads of 
worlds. Herschel found that in all parts of the Milky Way the 
stars were unequally dispersed and apparently arranging themselves 
into separate clusters. Each of these clusters, like our own solar 
system, is probably a family group having its central sun round 
which it revolves ; this sun with all its retinue revolving round still 
another, and that with immensely augmented numbers, round still 
another, and so on, series upon series, each successive series becom- 
ing the centre of the preceding one, until ten thousand times ten 
thousand myriads of systems are engaged in one boundless and 
stupendous waltz around the Omnipotent Sun. 

" Throughout the Galaxy's extended line, 
Unnumbered orbs in gay confusion shine ; 
Where every star that gilds the gloom of night 
"With the faint trembling of a distant light, 
Perhaps illumes some system of its own, 
With the strong influence of a radiant Sun."* 

We have a miniature representation of this arrangement in our 
own solar system. Nineteen secondary planets, aside from our 
Moon, have already been discovered ; these revolving round their 
primaries, and their primaries round the Sun ; and it cannot be 
reasonably doubted that the Sun is revolving round some other 
Sun still more positive than itself. Professor Madler, of Dorpet, 
Russia, announced several years since that he had discovered that 
the star Alcyone, one of the seven stars, is the centre, round which 
the Sun and solar system are revolving. Under such an arrange- 
ment the Sun would be the negative body to Alcyone and depend 
upon it for his light and heat in the same manner that the Earth 
depends upon the Sun. Upon this hypothesis the length of one of 
the Sun's days is nearly 25 \ of our days, and one of his years 
18,200,000 of our years. Now if we imagine that Alcyone is 
revolving round a still more positive central sun, at the same ratio 
one of his years would cover a period of time wholly incompre- 
hensible to the finite mind. I will here take the occasion to 
* Mrs. Carter. 



336 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

remark, that astronomers will yet find it to be a universal law, that 
the positiveness of any planet is in exact ratio to the number of its 
satellites — the satellites in their united capacity, either mediately or 
immediately, being the negative principle of the positive orb. And 
it is a remarkable fact, worthy of observation, that without any 
knowledge of this principle, astrologers have uniformly recognized 
Saturn with his eight moons as the most positive primary planet 
connected with our solar system. 

Now let us apply this rule to the Mental Faculties. Here we 
find the grouping of congenital principles, in perfect keeping 
with those just pointed out in the planetary system. Each group 
has its central sun, or predominant faculty, from which it derives 
its light and stimulus to affect other faculties. 

Alimentiveness, situated in the anterior portion of the middle 
lobe, just forward of the top of the ear, is the central organ of 
mere animal life, around which every other faculty belonging to 
the exclusively selfish plane of existence, are grouped. The exer- 
cise of this function, lays the physical basis for the maintenance of 
all the others. Destructiveness, essential in overcoming obstacles, 
and supplying the wants of the body ; Acquisitiveness, which in- 
duces the animal to lay by food for future use ; and Constructive- 
ness, which enables him to provide a habitation, are in immediate 
proximity to this organ, and cooperate in effecting its object. 
Hence, when man makes these faculties the object and end of life, 
he is on the first rudimental plane of the brute. His higher pow- 
ers thus shorn of their natural aspirations, become inverted in their 
action, and are led to seek selfish and worldly indulgences, which 
can never be satiated, and consequently become a source of per- 
petual torment to their possessor : depriving him of even that quiet 
satisfaction which his kindred brute enjoys. 

Eventuality, or conservative faculty, is the centre of Intelligence. 
Without this central organ in the region of the intellect, all efforts 
at obtaining knowledge, would be as water in a sieve, no sooner 
dipped than gone. Thought would be forgotten as soon as ex- 
pressed. Objects would be remembered only while seen, — Com- 
parison could never exist, for there would be nothing in the mem- 
ory from which illustrations could be drawn. Locality would no 
longer have any events from which it could recall the location or 
position of objects. Or, if we extend into the next circle, which 
we may call the secondaries to these, — Form and Size would have 
no conception of the relative shape, magnitude, or proportion of 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 337 

things, only while visible, — Time would have no events from 
which to date, — Wit, there being no store-house of memory from 
which to draw its correspondences, would become insipid or inert, 
— Suavitiveness could recall no past events by which it could ren- 
der itself pleasing to others. Each secondary organ, like the 
Moon, is as directly dependent upon its primary, as the primary 
upon its central sun. 

Philoprogenitiveness, situated immediately above the middle 
part of the cerebellum, is the centre of social life. The faculties 
which compose this group being common to man and the lower 
animals, neither construct ideas nor procure knowledge. This 
constellation is composed of adhesiveness, inhabitiveness and con- 
nubiativeness (union for life) all which go to make up the domestic 
relation and lay the foundation of society. 

Self-esteem, situated at the back part of the mesial region of the 
vertex, where the coronal surface begins to decline towards the 

ciput, and a little above the posterior or sagittal angle of the 

rietal bones, is the centre of selfish life. This sentiment qualita- 
tively embraces pride, self-confidence, arrogance, and love of power. 
Its primary satellites are decision, approbativeness, ambition and 
concentration. This constellation of faculties embraces certain feel- 
ings which correspond to the "emotions" of metaphysicians. 

Veneration — or more properly, Love to God — situated in the 
middle of the coronal region of the brain, is the centre of Spiritual 
life. This is the primary sun of every other faculty of the Human 
constitution — the central orb illuminated by the Creator Himself , 
and round which all others, in their successive series, shoidd har- 
moniously revolve. All of the other pivotal organs, in an orderly 
condition, receive their light from this and reflect it to their respec- 
tive satellites. Its primaries are, faith, hope and charity, wdiich 
constitute the three great principles of the Divine Man ; its secon- 
daries are, spiritual love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, 
goodness, meekness, integrity, devotion, beneficence, firmness, 
philanthropy, patience and forbearance. These graces make up 
the external Christian man. But it is as impossible for these to 
exist without the primaries — Faith, Hope and Charity — as it is 
for the primaries to exist without the Divine. The eight satellites 
of Saturn depend upon the relation of that planet to the Sun. So 
likewise these secondaries depend upon the dynamic forces trans- 
mitted from the Divine through these primaries. Now, as the 
forces of all the planets, whether primary or secondary, converge and 



338 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

focalize in the great Central Sun, so every faculty of the human 
constitution converges and focalizes their forces in Love to God. 

A conjunction between the spheres of a positive and negative 
orb, always effects an illumination, in exact ratio to the positiveness 
of one, and the negativeness of the other. Two Suns, in every 
particular alike, would have no more illuminating properties for 
each other, than two cannon balls ; for neither would be receptive 
of the conditions of the other, — neither possessing properties with 
which the other could blend ; hence their spheres would be a mix- 
ture of connate forces, whereas, atmospherical illumination is 
effected only by the blending of sexual forces, arising from the 
affinity between two orbs. Wherefore the alternation of day and 
night, at any given point, is the effect of the regularity of the ro- 
tary movements of the negative planet, and not merely in conse- 
quence of the opaque body of the Earth turning itself between us 
and the Sun. Its greatest negative force is always on the side next 
to the positive planet ; and its greatest positive force on the sicta 
directly opposite ; consequently every part of the ecliptic, is re^ 
spectively positive and negative once in each revolution. That 
part of the Earth's ecliptic, which is positive at any given hour, is 
negative twelve hours later, so that the atmosphere being the re- 
ceptacle of the Sun's influence, is found to be more positive during 
the day than the night. Clouds also, to a greater or less degree, 
tend to insulate the magnetic forces of the Sun, so that they do 
not reach the Earth in their full potency ; hence when there are 
several strata of clouds moving in different directions, the electri- 
cal forces are subject to great and rapid variations, changing some- 
times from positive to negative, and back again, in the course of a 
few minutes. On the approach of a thunder storm, these alterna- 
tions of the electrical conditions of the air, succeed one another 
with remarkable rapidity, the clouds arising from the negative 
planet become temporary insulators between the electrical forces 
of the two orbs, and the vivid lightning and the fearful reports 
which follow, are but the convulsive efforts to regain their lost 
equilibrium — the atmosphere being the theatre where the unequal- 
ized conditions of these two forces are displayed. * 

* These remarks would seem to more properly belong to the part of the present 
essay, where the relation of the planets are more especially discussed; but it will 
be remembered that I am treating upon the constitution of man, and use astro- 
nomical science to illustrate and enforce my idea, while, at the same time, I take 
the occasion to correct many of the absurdities of the present system of astron- 
omy. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 339 

The principles here set forth have their correspondence in the 
Human constitution. The Religious faculties are the Sun through 
which all divine illumination flows, and which become the positive 
force in man. From the negative or earthly principle alone can 
arise any insulators between the two forces. To maintain the 
equilibrium between the Spiritual and Material is to establish that 
order within, which the Creator has beneficently established iviih- 
out. A violation of any of the Divine requirements, as effectually 
beclouds the moral atmosphere of the soul, as does any derangement 
of the electrical currents, the Earth. All unregenerate persons 
are enveloped in spiritual darkness, which is clearly visible to those 
whose interior perceptions are opened ; and is evidently still more 
so from the standpoint of angels. This is what is Biblically termed 
the smoke of their torment which ascends up forever and ever, and. 
which shuts out all Divine illumination. Night, in a spiritual 
sense, may be designated as a state of mental obscurity, grounded 
in a life of evil. Hence the term u darkness " is philosophically 
equally applicable to the spiritual as the material world. 

It is a law of mind that the inferior can never comprehend the 
superior ; wherefore, the higher should uniformly bear rule over 
the lower. Evidently upon this principle our Lord founded his 
precept that we should first seek the kingdom of heaven and his 
righteousness that all things else may be added. By this arrange- 
ment the higher can descend into the lower, as the sphere of the Sun 
descends into our atmosphere, and not only illuminates it, but at the 
same time renders it fruitful in every needed good. The fungus and 
mushroom plants that spring up suddenly in the night, many of 
which are destructive to life, have their correspondence in the false 
and mischievous opinions which generate in a mind that has turned 
from the only source of Spiritual Light to the darkness of the self- 
hood. Neither the material nor the spiritual life can ever reach a 
healthy and divine condition without first becoming properly 
aspected to each other ; for physical conditions depend upon 
spiritual, and spiritual have their basis in the physical, so that they 
are correlative and mutually dependent principles. " If thou wilt 
walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as 
thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days."* 
" See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and 
evil,"f principles which are inseparably connected, for good and 
evil are as much the first fundamental conditions of physical life 

* 1 Kings, 3 ; 14. t Deut. 30 ; 15. 



340 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

and death as they are of moral. Sin is no more disintegrating of 
the faculties of the mind than of the functions of the body — one 
is the legitimate result of the other. 

The Attractive Forces of the Sexes. 

It now only remains to briefly consider the attractive forces of 
the sexes and to designate their line of travel. 

When elements seek to unite and form some new entity it may 
be denominated the attraction of affinity. This rule applies with 
equal force to every department of nature, for all visible phenomena 
are the effects of invisible causes, their manifestations differing 
according to the different planes upon which the observation is 
made. 

I have already shown that chemistry, magnetism, attraction, 
gravitation and cohesion are the result of affinity, — the only real 
force in Nature. It may be well here to add that the points of 
comparison between these five kinds of electricity, or rather the 
five different modes of affinity, are attractive and repulsive at 
sensible distances ; discharging from points through the air ; the 
heating power; and lastly, the spark. All kinds of electricity 
have strong magnetic powers ; the existence of the magneto- and 
thermo-electricities were discovered by their magnetic influence 
alone. Magnets have been uniformly made according to the 
same law, and the needle has been uniformly deflected in the same 
manner. M. Colladon and Dr. Faraday have proved that ordinary 
electricity agrees with Voltaic, but that time must be allowed for its 
action. It deflected the needle, whether the current was sent 
through rarefied air, water, or wire. Numerous chemical decom- 
positions have been effected by ordinary and Voltaic electricity, 
according to the same laws and modes of arrangement. It has also 
been shown that electrical currents are evolved by magnets, which 
produce the same phenomena with the electrical currents from the 
Voltaic battery ; differing only in the suddenness of the expression. 
Dr. Faraday accomplished the decomposition of water, and Dr. 
Richie its composition, by means of magnetic action. M. Botts, of 
Turin, demonstrated the chemical affinity of the thermo-electricity 
in the decomposition of water and some other substances. Sir H. 
Davy decomposed water by the electricity of the torpedo. The 
limbs of a frog have been convulsed by thermo-electricity; it is 
also known that the torpedo and Grymnotus electricus give severe 
shocks. The last point of comparison is the spark, which is com- 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 341 

mon to ordinary Voltaic and magnetic fluids ; and Professor Linair, 
of Siena, has obtained both the direct and indirect sparks from the 
torpedo, thus proving that in this respect animal electricity does not 
differ from ihe others. Professor Faraday has very naturally arrived 
at the conclusion that the five, kinds of electricity are identical, and 
accounts for what were supposed to be their distinctive qualities by 
their difference in intensity and quality. In addition to this, he 
has demonstrated their identity by showing that the magnetic 
forces and the chemical action of electricity are in direct propor- 
tion to the absolute quantity of the fluid which passes through the 
galvanometer, whatever may be its intensity. 

The force which draws the sexes together, is identical with that 
which unites the opposite poles of two magnets, or which causes 
dissimilar electricities to attract each other ; differing only in inten- 
sity and quantity, as organic life differs from inanimate substances. 
In the one case, it is human sexual magnetism ; in the other, it is 
the dynamic force of matter ; but in both, the operations of the 
Divine Conjugal Sphere, hence the conservation of the same forces. 
Persons have been known to generate the electrical state in such a 
degree, that they gave off sparks whenever approached, — in this 
respect closely resembling the torpedo, though the electric shock 
possessed a much less degree of tension, owing probably to their 
inability of suppressing it ; whereas, in the fish, it is designed as a 
means of defense, and is discharged only at will. 

Light, heat, magnetism, electricity, attraction, gravitation, cohe- 
sion, life and intelligence — all these in every possible form — are 
but the different expressions in the successive chain of causation of 
one and the same principle, viz : the conjugal, which is forever 
being evolved from God, and filling immensity. Were the Cre- 
ator to withdraw his sphere from this planet, from that moment all 
dynamic action would cease, every principle of light and heat 
would be obliterated, all cohesion, gravitation, attraction and mag- 
netic force, would be destroyed ; particle would no longer adhere 
to particle, and the Earth, with all its contents, would finally be- 
come dispersed through space. It is thus " we live, move, and 
have our beino; in Him." It is thus He is the Creator and Pre- 
server, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End of all 
things. 

If this hypothesis be well founded — and it appears to me to be 
so self-evident that it may safely be regarded as an axiom in 
physics — it legitimately follows that the law of conjugality is the 



342 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

basis of every force in nature. Nor is it possible for any phenom- 
enon, either mental or physical, to ever take place without it ; for it 
is the means by which God creates and sustains the order of his 
creation. The discoveries of Galileo and Newton, have added 
more to astronomical science, than the investigations of all other 
philosophers ; and the world has bestowed upon them that honor 
to which they were so justly entitled. But the principle here set 
forth, is as much more important, as mind is superior to matter. 
It not only embraces the fundamental principles of their discov- 
eries, but every other principle and phenomenon in the realm of 
either mind or matter — including cause and effect. Without it 
there is nothing ; within it is God, whose Omnipotent and Omni- 
present Sphere is the creative, the re-productive, and the sustain- 
ing principle, of whatever has an existence. 

As each planet has its positive and negative poles, and an 
imaginary axis around which it revolved, so has each human being. 
Within the furthest extremities of these poles, is embraced every 
principle that is essential to the perfection of the physical economy. 
These are equatorial organs both in the brain and in the body, which 
are the dividing lines between the positive and negative forces of 
each. In the brain, — the plane of mind, — the corpus collosum 
is the septum between the mental and physical forces ; in the 
body, — the plane of the material, — the diaphragm is the septum 
between the nutritive and vital. All below the diaphragm in the 
body, corresponds to all below the corpus callosum in the brain ; 
and all above the diaphragm in the body corresponds to all above 
the corpus collosum in the brain. Reverence and Amativeness 
are the two extreme poles of the brain ; and the lungs and the 
reproductive glands are the two extreme poles of the body. 

If we drop a pebble into the ocean, wave succeeds wave, expand- 
ing more and more in every direction, until the greatest possible 
extremity is reached. Precisely so with all organic constitutions. 
There is a primeval germ from which the whole being is evolved, 
function succeeds function, and as we ascend on the nlane of the 
mental, we also descend on the plane of the physical ; so that the 
circle of each wave is at an equal distance, both above and below 
the centre. The religious and the reproductive organs, are the 
two extremes of the human constitution, — the former is the posi- 
tive, and the latter the negative pole ; and they hold a direct and 
immediate relation to each other, so that as one is wasted the other 
is weakened. Hence, moral strength and sexual purity are con- 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 343 

cordant forces which give birth to manhood ; and these are as 
reciprocally dependent upon each other for the development of all 
real manly qualities, as are the Sun and the Earth in the produc- 
tion of vegetation. If evidence of this is needed, it is everywhere 
furnished in the most ample but disgraceful abundance. Sexual 
debauchery and a loss of moral consciousness, are the crying sins 
of this age. Nor is it possible that one should prevail without a 
corresponding condition of the other ; for as we withdraw the 
forces from one extremity of a magnetized bar, we also weaken 
it at the opposite extremity, — the negativeness of one being in 
exact ratio to the positiveness of the other. So in a religious and 
sexual point of view, one is an exact counterpart to the other, — 
they are coopposite forces. 

Thus, Reverence being the positive pole of the sexual instinct, 
and at the same time negative to the Divine, is the immediate 
receptacle of the creative forces. These forces become conditioned 
by the individual, as light by the atmosphere, so that the progeny 
primarily springing trom the Creator are perverted solely through 
human media, for no other creature has been endowed with amoral 
constitution by which the creative principle can become subverted 
in its action. But all influx from the natural world, in contradis- 
tinction to the spiritual, is through the senses immediately con- 
nected with the base of the brain. Of these, the sexual instinct is 
the pivotal function ; and it is through this, being the extreme 
negative pole of the moral constitution, and the fellow or coopposite 
force of reverence, that every primary disorderly influence finds 
access to the soul. Sight, touch and hearing are the chief external 
avenues through which human magnetism flows. The influence 
received being charged with the magnetism of the other, is directly 
opposite to that imparted. These magnetic currents thus laden 
with the elements of one of the sex respectively find their affinity 
in the other. 

The reproductive glands are the ultimate receptacles of these 
forces in the body as the amative instinct is in the brain. The 
periphery, therefore, of the moral constitution is reverence on the 
one hand, and the sexual instinct on the other ; the periphery of 
the physical constitution is the amative instinct and the reproductive 
glands — this instinct being the intermediate principle between the 
creative force and its final culmination in re-creation. It is here 
that all disorders commence, imparing the integrity of the mind on 
the one hand, and the integrity of the organic structure on the 



344 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

other. By agglomerating the moral and physical constitution into 
a unit, the moral sentiments and the sexual functions become the 
periphery, within which are embraced all that constitutes man. 
The union of these 'positive and negative principles gives birth to a 
new force in the constitution, the tension of which is in ratio to 
the feminine qualities of one, and the masculine qualities of the other. 
Hence, in the social, as in the physical world, we find that opposites 
attract and likes repel, which fully accounts for the fact that, 
conjugally, the most positive intuitively seek the most negative, 
and vice versa. 

As no effect can exist without some adequate cause, it is clearly 
evident that the reciprocal influence exhibited by the male and 
female, must be the result of some force playing between them. 
Whatever may be the nature of this force, the phenomenon dem- 
onstrates that it has a direct opposite effect upon the parties — that 
while its tendency is to render one active, it* at the same time, ren- 
ders the other passive, and this in exact ratio to its intensity ; thus 
showing that it perfectly corresponds with the phenomena of the 
magnetic forces, as exhibited in every other department of nature, 
and is identical with them. This being the case, it necessarily fol- 
lows that there must be corresponding positive and negative poles : 
first, individually ; and second, in their social relation. 

Every gland in the organic structure, is negative to, and recep- 
tive of, the fluids to which it bears relation. The genital glands 
are the receptacles of the re-productive forces, and hence the ex- 
treme negative poles of this principle, the positive pole being in 
the conscious re-productive instinct. Sexual magnetism is the crea- 
tive principle operating through organized media, hence the finest 
and most potent of the living forces. This arouses every part of 
the organic structure, by first arousing within it the spiritual forces 
which immediately act upon the physical, so that these glands be- 
come the ultimate receptacles of these forces, from both the spirit- 
ual and material plane. By this means, their negativeness is pro- 
portionably enhanced, which, in the same ratio, effects an excita- 
tion of the positive pole of the brain. 

But the question here arises : by what special agent is this 
effected ? or, what new force has been introduced into the system, 
and by w r hat means ? I have before shown that the physical or- 
ganization of the sexes is the same, only in a reversed order — what 
is external with one, being internal with the other. Consonant 
with this, the forces generated by them are of a directly opposite 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 345 

character, and produce a corresponding difference in their mental 
and physical constitution, but it is a difference of adaptation. What- 
ever may have been the primary cause of this difference, it is cer- 
tain that the genital glands are one of the chief physical agents in 
keeping up this distinction. For it is well known that if the ova- 
ries fail of reaching a full development, or subsequently become 
enfeebled in action, the female is deprived of those attractive graces 
and magnetic forces, which interest the male in her behalf and in- 
duce him to seek her society. And when the testes are removed 
by castration, or their forces much weakened by viscious habits, 
man fails of the higher masculine qualities, becomes effeminate in 
character, and comparatively disinterested in woman, and, at the 
same time, loses the attractive force essential to awaken in her 
an interest in his own behalf. Corresponding physical conditions 
soon follow, the female grows more and more masculine, and the 
male more and more feminine. 

It is a law of physics that electricities of the same kind repel, 
whereas those of different kinds attract each other ; and that the 
attractive power is exactly equal to the repulsive power at equal 
distances, so when not opposed, they coalesce with great rapidity. 
The same law applies to social life ; for all principles are unvary- 
ing and universal in their operations. So that here, as elsewhere, 
differences are essential to attraction ; not in opinions, social habits, 
or positions, but in magnetic forces. But it is necessary that this 
difference should be an orderly expression of the constitutional 
distinction between the sexes. For, when woman becomes the 
positive, and man the negative party, they become objects of 
mutual repulsion to each other. Every position or pursuit which 
tends to bring woman into a positive relation to man, is equally 
destructive to the higher qualities of both. The two poles must 
necessarily be equipoised, hence, as she ascends towards the posi- 
tive scale, he is forced to descend towards the negative, so that, in 
an equal degree, the characteristic distinction of sex becomes 
destroyed. 

The sexual qualities are far more psychological than physiological, 
for it is abundantly evident that as we ascend into the higher 
grade of life, the sexual distinction becomes more and more appar- 
ent. In the lower orders of sentient beings it is difficult to dis- 
tinguish between the male and female ; but in the human species, 
where the sexual forces reach their highest natural condition, every 



346 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

feature, movement and intonation, clearly indicate the predomin- 
ance of one sexual quality over the other. 

The proper maintenance of this distinction is the highest duty 
of both parties. Each becomes perfected in their proper sphere of 
action by the coopposite relation of the other. Hence, it is not 
permitted woman to teach nor usurp authority over the man, but to 
be in silence* and maintain a subordinate relation to her husband 
as unto the Lord — not to his evils, but to his manhood, u as is fit 
in the Lord." Every principle of true philosophy sustains this 
divine injunction. The wife is also called upon to reverence her 
husband ; but no rational person can for a moment suppose that the 
Creator requires that his children shall reverence evil, whatever 
form it may assume. She is to reverence the wisdom or manly 
principle, and the individual only so far as he possesses it. The 
husband, on the other hand, is likewise required " to love his wife 
as his own sl)ul ;" but he can really love only her negative or 
womanly qualities, and not merely her person, only so far as it is a 
representative of these. An attachment to the person without the 
accompanying psychological forces of manly or womanly qualities 
is mere lust, not love. The husband is to love his wife, for this is 
the conjunctive principle ; the wife is to reverence and obey the 
husband, for this is the receptive condition ; — love and protection on 
the one hand, affectionate submission and fidelity on the other. 
Only in such relations can they ever really journey back to the 
paradisiacal garden from which their evils have driven them. 

Physically, man is but an animal, so that the conjugal forces 
meet at the highest juncture of the physical constitution and the 
intuitions ; but after descending to the lowest, they re-act to the 
highest principle of the psychological constitution, where they come 
in immediate contact with the Divine sphere, and here branch into 
every department of the encephalon ; so that the Moral constitu- 
tion is sustained by the reflex action of the physical in conjunction 
with the Divine. But as the higher forces control the lower, the 
condition or quality of the physical is wholly determined by the 
moral, so that the integrity of the organic structure, depends upon 
the state of the moral constitution. 

With these considerations before us, founded as they are upon 
the human constitution and sustained by the whole physical uni- 
verse, we can now understandingly trace the travel of the mag- 
netic forces between the sexes. The following diagram will illus- 
trate this point. Orderly relations only are here referred to : 

* 1 Timothy, 11 ; 12. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 



347 





The dotted line is designed to represent the travel of the magnetic currents. A 
A the Religious Faculties ; B B the Genital Gland ; C C the Pons Varolii ; D D 
the Cerebellum ; E Reflection ; F Perception. This plate is very imperfect; the 
dotted line should have passed into the cerebellum instead of barely touching its 
outer border. 



The design of this diagram is to represent a perfect conjugal 
sphere. It illustrates the action and re-action of the male and 
female upon each other. Through this reciprocal action, unem- 
barrased by the insulating influence of any foreign associations, the 
two, in every psychological principle, become completely one. 
Like the two extremities of a magnetic bar, they are the mutual 
sustainers of the conditions of each other; she, the love of his 
wisdom, he, the wisdom of her love. She, the perception, he, the 
direction. 

Sexual forces have their first copulation in the Pons Varolii, 
where the individual psychological and physical forces meet in the 
fullest conjunction. The Pons is more immediately connected 
with the nervous system than any other portion of the encephalon, 
so that a new force is established at a point which is immediately con- 
nected with both the psychological and physical forces throughout 



348 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the constitution. Love to the Lord, (Veneration,) which is the im- 
mediate conjunctive principle between man and his Creator, is the 
positive pole of the psychological forces ; and the genital glands 
which are the ultimate receptacles of the re-creative sphere operat- 
ing through nature, are the negative pole of the physical forces. 

By referring to the dotted line in the diagram, it will be seen 
that the moral re-action of the sexual force, is to the Coronal re- 
gion of the brain, from thence, in man, to the reflective faculties; 
but in woman, to the perceptive, and thus charged with the Relig- 
ious element, becomes the quickening and inspiring principle of 
the Intellect in the former, and of the Intuitions in the latter. 
Here we have the essential and primary conditions of all true in- 
spiration. Disguise the fact as we may, the whole history of the 
world, and more than all, the Christian Scriptures go clearly to 
show that the inspiration of mankind has invariably depended 
upon their fidelity to the conjugal relation. Nor can it be other- 
wise so long as it is morally impossible for the Creator to conjoin 
Himself with evil ; for, this relation, in its orderly condition, being 
the ultimate expression of Divine forces, is the means of transmit- 
ting the interior perceptions and rationality, which more immedi- 
ately connects with the higher life, into the' external consciousness. 
Lust has a direct opposite effect, it destroys the intuitions and sub- 
stitutes sophistry for philosophy. Demoralized men and women, 
whether so in outward life or inner consciousness, are remarkably 
sophistical, without intuitions or moral perceptions. 

So long as the circle of reciprocal influences between husband* 
and wife remains unbroken by the introduction of a third party, 
they interchangeably supply those elements which each has in a 
redundance over the other, and in their social relation are the 
orderly mediums of the creative forces by which successive orders 
of re-creations are effected, — on the plane of the body, new indi- 
vidual entities ; on the plane of the mind successive orders of 
thought and religious aspirations. They become a unity of both 
human and Divine forces concordantly working together, the poten- 
cy of which depends upon their religious fidelity to each other. 
They stand as a Divine fortress built out into the natural world, so 
that whosoever shall gather together against them shall fall for 
their sake ; and no weapon that is formed against them shall 
prosper ; and every tongue that shall rise against them in judgment 
they shall condemn.* 

* Isaiah, 54; 17. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 349 

Second, Adulteration of the Conjugal Principle. 

The direction of the magnetic current is subject to the will. 
Whenever either party lustfully contemplates a third person by 
going out in desire after things forbidden, the conjugal sphere is 
broken and a new condition established, a condition which holds no 
direct connection with the moral forces of the individual. The 
positive pole is now transferred from the religious principle to 
secretiveness. What was done openly from a sense of right, is now 
done clandestinely from a sense of wrong. The lower principles 
are now equally or more intensely active, but without the coopera- 
tion of the higher. The emotions here assume a positive attitude 
to the sentiments, which completely inverts the divine order, so that 
the individual becomes an impulsive rather than a rational being. 
The Divine force, conservated in the human constitution, is the 
only mentally illuminating principle ; but it cannot wed with im- 
pulses positive to itself; so that both the understanding and the 
intuitions are left without the stimulus necessary to maintain a 
healthy action. 

The forces of the impulses tend to the body rather than to the 
understanding, whereas the forces of the sentiments tend to the 
understanding rather than to the body ; but as the forces of the 
sentiments fail to assimilate with the forces of the impulses, the 
latter are deprived of the life-preserving properties by which the 
body is sustained ; and, at the same time, the understanding is de- 
prived of the forces by which it becomes illuminated into a state of 
rationality. The inspiring influence imparted to the understand- 
ing is now from beneath rather than from above its own level, and 
as the flower turns to the Sun from which it receives its life, so the 
understanding turns to the source from which it receives its inspir- 
ations ; hence, when its inspirations come from the impulses instead 
of the sentiments, it turns to nature rather than to God. Here is 
the origin of all moral evil and mental darkness. 

Man, though an animal in his impulses, is more than an animal 
in his moral perceptions. His evils have their origin in the abuse 
of the faculties proper to him, rather than in any undue activity 
of his impulses ; for the higher faculties, in their orderly condition, 
are positive to the lower, and hold them in perfect subordination. 
The emotions furnish the stimulus to action, but they are as irre- 
sponsible in man as in the brute ; whereas, the sentiments, cooper- 
ating with the understanding, are the directing principle and 
constitute the plane of moral accountability. Hence, the positive 

45 



350 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

plane in man is a discrete degree above the highest animal, while 
the negative plane is possessed in common by both. What gives 
rise to evil is the transference of the positive action from the sen- 
timents to the emotions, so that the higher becomes subordinate to 
the lower. And as it is the higher faculties that constitute man 
in contradistinction to the animal, this destroys his rationality and 
changes him trom a man to an intellectual animal ; and he becomes, 
psychologically, a representative of such animals as he most imi- 
tates, differing from them more in intellect than in morals. 
Though a man cannot change his bodily form into that of a beast, 
he can change his spiritual form into that of a devil representing 
beastly qualities. 

The mere copulative tendencies of the brute, in contradistinc- 
tion to the higher conjugal forces of man, are the conservated action 
of the creative forces operating through nature. The attraction 
between animals of the same generic species, is purely the result 
of organic forces derived immediately from a natural rather than a 
Divine source, hence only such as is necessary to bring them into 
physical relation with each other. Possessing no higher principle 
than the emotions, they have no counteracting influence to re- 
strain them in their actions, or to cause one to be more interesting 
than another. The end of their association is accomplished when 
they effect a new entity, and as they are capable of no improve- 
ment beyond their instinctive nature, they have been endowed 
with no capabilities of moral association, by which a union above 
the plane of impulse can be effected. 

But with man it is different. The first principle of marriage 
between the sexes, is above the plane of the brute, having a more 
special reference to psychological than physiological forces — a 
union of spirits, rather than a conjunction of bodies. The bod- 
ily association is the result of the spirit descending into the ulti- 
mate plane, to effect a blending of the organic forces, by transfer- 
ring to the wife, as the receptive party, the qualities of the husband. 
It is by this arrangement that the maid becomes a wife ; and as all 
spiritual principles must have a material basis, the union of minds 
is perfected by the union of bodies. Woman's mental and moral 
reaction is fr^m the virile forces incorporated into her own constitu- 
tion, so that she is ever sure to reflect the moral condition of her 
male associates, whether one or many, and to perceive truths or falsi- 
ties which are in perfect keeping with her own conjugal state ; for 
her conjugal state is the immediate correlative of her spiritual 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 351 

state, so that the condition of one, can never transcend that of the 
other. To divide the conjugal principle is to destroy it, and 
with it every moral condition which fits the soul for Heaven. 

Moreover, there is a sphere encompassing each individual, as the 
atmosphere the Earth. This sphere flows from, and is charged 
with, the actual conditions of the inner, as well as the outer life, — 
it comprises the qualities of both the moral and physical constitu- 
tion, and becomes attractive or repulsive to others, according to 
their agreement with it. The sphere of the good, can be no more 
attractive to the bad, than the bad to the good, for it is a differ- 
ence of moral states, rather than sexual qualities, so that they 
reciprocally repel each other. 

I have frequently known sensitive persons who could readily 
detect the action of other spheres upon them ; and I have uniformly 
found that those who were confirmed in a life of vicious habits 
warmly affinitized with those in a similar moral condition. At first 
I was astonished at witnessing the enthusiasm with which they 
would extol each other, but subsequently learned that the bad as well 
as the good love whatever yields them pleasure, though it be in 
evil. But no sooner was the moral condition of one of these 
parties changed, while the other remained the same, than the repul- 
sion became as strong as the previous attraction. I have, more- 
over, frequently seen such sensitive persons so affected by the near 
approach of a reformed associate that it was with great difficulty 
they could endure a contact with their sphere, even in passing 
them upon the street. It is not strange, therefore, that the better 
are so frequently hated and scandalized by the worst. In fact, for the 
virtuous to be repulsive to and evil spoken of by the vicious, is but 
a legitimate sequence growing out of a dissimilarity of their con- 
ditions. Persons do not persecute others because they believe them 
to be better than themselves, but because of the moral dissimilarity 
between them ; and the more confirmed any one becomes in evil, 
the more confident he is in the soundness of his opinions. It is 
only during the struggle between good and evil in the individual, 
that he is dissatisfied with his own attainments ; but when the evil 
has successively driven out one good after another until none 
remains, the demon imagines himself a God, and his shameless 
abominations become to him a standard of expediency and recti- 
tude. Hence, our Lord says : " Blessed are ye, when men shall 
revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil 
against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad 



352 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

for great is your reward in Heaven, for so persecuted they the 
prophets which were before you."* He here gives us the example 
of the prophets as the best of men, who were persecuted not for 
their own evils, but in consequence of the evils of others in con- 
trast with themselves, and the Lord himself, in His humanity, was 
no exception to this rule. 

The object of here introducing these facts is not so much to 
illustrate the philosophy of scandal, as to point out the nature of 
the contending psychological influence, originating in the different 
religious principles of the parties. They show us how diverse are 
the magnetic forces of the same individual under different con- 
ditions ; and that it by no means necessarily follows that parties 
who can affinitize, while both are in similar religious states, can 
have the same agreement with each other while actuated by adverse 
influences. The attractive forces between the sexes are chiefly from 
mental rather than physical adaptation, — a peculiarity which 
belongs to man in contradistinction to, the brute. Were it not for 
this, mankind would herd rather than form conjugal alliances or 
maintain family relations. But how far they are morally bound to 
perpetuate a relation after the conditions which induced it cease to 
exist, is a question which will be more fully discussed in the next 
chapter. 

As there is, therefore, a sphere flowing from the life of every 
individual, it brings the husband and wife into actual contact with 
the interior thoughts and purposes of each other, — they live in 
consociation upon the inner as well as the outer plane of life. 
And as whatever moral principle flowing from the interior loves 
surrounds a person, becomes the common property of all who are in 
a condition to receive it, they are compelled to become, to a greater 
or less degree, absorbent of the elements of each other, whatever 
they may be. True, the parties may not be sufficiently sensitive 
in feeling or quickened in perception, to enable each to readily 
determine the influence of the sphere of the other upon them or 
to analyze its moral quality ; nevertheless its effects are none the 
less real. A virtuous person cannot live in the sphere of habitual 
lust without, at the same time, keeping up a continuedly positive 
relation to it ; for the negative condition, whether in man or 
woman is the receptive condition. But this the wife cannot do, 
and at the same time maintain the wifely relation, for this is a 
negative relation ; and in becoming negative to the husband, she 
* Matthew 5; 11,12. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 353 

becomes receptive of all his conditions, whether innate or adhe- 
rent to him by contact with others. 

Water is essential to life, and all nature drinks and becomes 
invigorated thereby. But when it issues from stagnant pools 
instead of healthful springs, it is charged with miasmatic poisons 
which impart death instead of life to those who drink. So with 
the conjugal principle. Springing from the pure fountain of 
religion, it is cleansed of every contamination, and flows forth to 
give life and vigor to humanitv. But when it oozes its murky 
streams from the pestiferous pools of blighted vows and perjured 
consciences it freights the elements of death, temporal and eternal. 

Let us note its effects upon the parties. The forces playing 
between them are forces pertaining to the re-creative principle, 
hence, the most subtle and potent of any connected with the 
human constitution. Any derangement of their action mxxzt 
necessarily produce a corresponding derangement of the mental 
and moral condition, and through these, of the organic structure. 
As the seed has stored up within it the forces which determine the 
nature of the future plant, so within the conjugal principle is con- 
tained the forces -which determine the character of every other 
condition of life. 

Is the husband the guilty party ? The now unfortunate wife, 
though intellectually unconscious of the change, feels the loss of 
the element with which she was once supplied. True to her 
womanly instincts, jealousy begins to haunt her imagination, not 
a jealousy of mere selfishness, but a laudable fear lest the conjugal 
principle shall be destroyed, and thereby an irreparable injury done 
to the husband, even far greater than to herself. She intuitively 
knows that the love once bestowed upon her is no longer hers, and 
justly accuses her husband of infidelity to her, while he, at the 
same time, perhaps, conscientiously, reproves the wife for unwar- 
rantable distrust, forgetting that to look and lust is to commit the 
act. The feminine element no longer meeting with a response, is 
driven back and pent up within, where it becomes a source of dis- 
order to the mind and disease to the body. As reaction is equal to 
action, she is not the only sufferer. The conjugal forces will find 
some expression ; its mode will depend upon the relative moral 
and physical strength of the individual. It will either go out to 
some one who will reciprocate it, or become expended in a war of 
words, or in a diseased action of the organic structure. What the 
husband refused to receive from the wife in order, he is now com- 



354 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

pelled to receive in disorder. His affections having unlawfully 
turned in another direction, he closes himself against the Divine 
sphere, so that he has no manly qualities to impart, and now as often 
as they come together, he floods her with a sphere of lust instead 
of love. Half bewildered by -its darkening influence, and stagger- 
ing and reeling beneath the enormous weight of guilt brought to 
bear upon her, she reacts upon him with a force equal to the inten- 
sity of her nature. Ignorant, selfish, and besotted, to a degree 
which blinds him to his own faults, and fails to reveal to him the 
cause and effect of their social disorders, her reaction upon him 
only drives him further from her, and makes him still more indif- 
ferent to her reasonable demands. Thus, action and reaction con- 
tinue until Satan seizes upon the reins of government, and des- 
troys the remaining good, and plunges them into every conceivable 
misfortune. 

But, if amid this tumultuous war of the passions, the wife looks 
to Him whom the winds and the waves obey, His sphere will expel 
these organic forms of evil through her menstrual flow from her 
system, and thus, to a large extent, shield her from their fearful 
consequences. Moreover, if she continues to maintain the wifely 
relation, she encompasses her husband on all sides ; for by being 
in relation with the Divine, she is positive to him on the side of the 
right, by becoming the rational principle of which he, for a time, 
is deprived ; while at the same time, she is receptive of his condi- 
tion on the side of the evil, by sustaining to him the wifely relation. 
-Thus aspected, she alternates between the positive and negative con- 
dition, so that she now performs a two-fold office. While she dis- 
charges her duty as a wife on the one hand, she becomes the wis- 
dom principle to a man whom Satan has robbed of his birthright, 
on the other. 

There are, however, but few women who are so constituted as to 
be able to fill this double office. It requires an illuminated under- 
standing, a religious devotion, and an unusually healthy menstrual 
flow. Without an illuminated understanding, she cannot become 
wisdom to her husband ; without religious devotion, she can impart 
to him no Divine principle ; without a healthy menstrual flow, she 
will lose her life. Where one ever succeeds in this attempt, pro- 
bably scores, if not hundreds, not only fail, but either become them- 
selves debauched or destroyed. Man's sphere is constitutionally 
more positive than woman's, and there are but few women who 
are able to bear up under this accumulated load of positive evil. 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 355 

True, if the man is effeminate, and the woman is strongly aspected 
to the divine, she may succeed, but not otherwise — her forbearance 
will only sustain him in his evils. 

Sin can be overcome only by the sinless. If, therefore, the wife 
holds no divine connection through a confiding trust in her Lord, 
the evils which she takes on, whether by her own act or through 
the conjugal sphere, adhere to her and become incorporated into 
her constitution, where they work their legitimate results. More- 
over, the wife being the fructifying or nutritive party, evils de- 
rived from the male sphere, increase in the ratio of her own dis- 
orders. 

Jealousy on the part of the wife throws her into a positive 
relation to her husband and necessarily destroys the conjugal 
harmony between them. When justly founded, it becomes a 
protective principle, so long as she herself maintains the right from 
religious motives. But this is seldom the case. Her jealousy 
usually arises from purely selfish considerations — a love of appro- 
priation rather than a love of use. It is both laudable and expe- 
dient when it has in view the protection of the conjugal principle 
rather than any merely selfish appropriation ; but usually the 
affections of both parties are from the amount of happiness which 
can be derived, rather than the amount which can be bestowed. 
One is lust, the other love. Mistaking the former for the latter, 
the wife erects upon it her standard of arbitrary justice and claims 
from impulses what she has a right to claim from principle. The 
husband perceiving that she is actuated only by selfish considerations, 
naturally concludes that, as there is no preeminence in the flesh, 
her impulses are but little better than his — that she seeks to obtain 
within the sanction of law what he seeks to obtain without. 
Neither having any definite idea of the sanctity growing out of 
the spiritual use of the marital relation, the husband fancies that 
any clandestine association, unknown to the wife, will be of no 
disadvantage to either. 

Whenever the wife assumes a positive attitude to her husband 
from purely selfish principles, rather than any religious consider- 
ations, she begets in him a like condition, which, combining with 
his own evils, seeks to find an expression in other and more nega- 
tive associations. In this, she becomes the repelling, rather than the 
attractive force. But a positiveness from religious motives, being 
higher than any sensual conditions, is no less attractive in woman 
than in man. From this it will be seen that the wife's unsanctified 



356 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

attachment becomes a reactive principle which deals its terrific 
blows at her own happiness. Moreover, in every such relation the 
potency of the conjugal sphere is destroyed, each, being made 
morally weak by their antagonism with the other, becomes an easy 
prey to their enemies. The wife seeks to protect herself against 
the perversities of her husband ; and the husband against the 
indignities of an outraged wife. Such is the economy of God in 
making evil punish itself. 

In conclusion, I will add, that an acquaintance with the forces in 
Nature, demonstrates that all divine institutions have their birth 
from innate principles, that are universal in their operation, and 
that the great Law Giver summarily states to us in the Christian 
Scriptures, the culmination of these forces on the social and moral 
plane, without giving us the modus operandi by which these results 
are wrought out. Mind and Matter are alike characterized by 
successive degrees, so that everywhere the nature or particular 
qualities of the marriage, are according to the plane upon which its 
forces are operative. In the Mineral kingdom it is the lowest or 
most rudimental form of the mere cohesion of particle to particle, 
as the first fundamental basis of all organization. In the Vegeta- 
ble kingdom, it is the instinctive but unconscious mingling of the 
re-productive properties of congenital principles, for the preserva- 
tion of their species. In the Animal kingdom, it is the instinct- 
ive sensational copulation of two conscious entities, for the creation 
of the third. 

In the Human, it is the culmination of all these in their respec- 
tive departments ; first, of the cohesion of particle to particle, by 
which the various tissues of the body are maintained ; second, the 
vegetative principle, by which nutrition is supplied ; and third, coi- 
tion, by which new entities are formed ; to which is added the 
copulation of the Intellectual and Moral forces, the former, for the 
procreation of thought, the latter, for its ultimation into uses. 
Here the circle of forces is completed, and the only point at which 
the highest conjugal happiness can be reached, and where all in- 
dividual interest merges into a divine use. In the ratio as we de- 
scend in the plane of animal life, we also descend into the sphere 
of selfishness, and consequently antagonism of interest. Affinity, 
therefore, so far as it pertains to the higher forms of marriage, be- 
comes established in proportion as we rise from the animal to the 
spiritual life. The forsaking and exchange of partners is a char- 
acteristic of brutes, not of men ; and experience teaches that all 



MARRIAGE AS A PRINCIPLE. 357 

persons are concordant in their marital relations in the degree in 
which they cooperate in the advancement of the Lord's Kingdom. 
Wherefore it is clearly evident that the Creator never designed 
that perfect happiness should ever be attained only in harmony 
with the principles He has established. Every selfish desire 
which is destitute of any consideration of an orderly use, is a dis- 
integrating influence, introduced by the Adversary of human in- 
terest, and is at direct antagonism with the Divine arrangement. 
Every alliance formed from mere lustful desires, or for the promo- 
tion of selfish ends — and a large majority are such — is simply a 
copartnership dictated by Satan, who will be likely to maintain 
the rule over the works of his own hands. As was shown in the 
chapter on u the laws of connection," whatever principle first 
enters into the contract, will continue to the end, unless overpow 
ered by Him who alone can bring harmony out of discord. 

" As in every human mind," says Rev. S. Noble, " there is the 
faculty of will and the faculty of understanding, which, by their 
union in order, produce in that mind a spiritual and heavenly 
marriage ; so has the Lord been pleased, in forming the race of two 
sexes, in order to the greater perfection and happiness of the whole, 
to begin the distinction of sex in the mind itself, by causing the 
male mind to partake more of the character of the intellect, and 
the female more of that of will ; a distinction which is obvious to 
all, — man being more distinguished by strength and clearness of 
understanding, and a propensity to cultivate the pursuits of science ; 
and woman being more eminently distinguished by warmth and 
softness of affection, and a tendency to such pursuits as more pro- 
mote the growth and improvement of this distinguishing character- 
istic. Man is not, most certainly, without affection, nor is woman 
without intellect ; nay, amid the extraordinary variety of human 
character which exists, there is here and there a man to be found 
in whom the affections seem to be stronger than in some females ; 
and there are certainly some females in whom the understanding 
is stronger than in many men ; still, even in the softest male affec- 
tion, and the most powerful female intellect, there is always some- 
thing which plainly discovers the character of it to be different 
from that of intellect and affection in the other sex respectively ; 
the cases are comparatively very few, in which either of the sex 
appear to enter the province of the other; and the great truth, 
that the one derives its peculiar characteristics frorn the preponder- 
ance in it of intellect over affection, and the other, that of affection 



358 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

over intellect, is so palpably manifest that nothing but the grossest 
prejudice can dispute it for a moment. Nothing is more false than 
to consider either sex as absolutely inferior to the other; in regard 
to that great principle which forms the predominant character of 
each, they are respectively both superior and inferior, and the inferi- 
ority of each in one respect being compensated by superiority in 
another, the most perfect equality is the genuine result. 

Thus, then, although, in the individuals oi each sex singly, the 
heavenly marriage of goodness and truth is capable of being 
formed, yet in no single mind can this be perfectly perfected. 
There will always remain, in the most completely regenerated man, 
a greater proportion of intellect than affection, or of truth than of 
goodness ; and the converse in the mind of the most completely 
regenerated woman. To make their perfection as absolute as a 
finite nature will admit, the deficiencies of each must be supplied 
by a union with the other ; and, on this account, they are so formed 
from creation, as that the minds of two may actually become one, 
which is effected, when, both submitting to regeneration from the 
Lord, they love each other from their inmost souls, and so are 
united in a marriage which originates in the marriage of goodness 
and truth, and thus in the Lord himself."* Having thus treated 
this subject at much greater length than I at first anticipated, I 
will now proceed to speak of marriage as an institution. 
* The Divine Law of the Ten Commandments ; page 202-3. 



CHAPTEK VIII. 

MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 

In the preceding chapter I endeavored to show' that marriage is 
a principle, and the only real force in nature, — the Divine Being 
operating through his creation. Under this head I shall treat of 
Marriage as an Institution, and endeavor to point out more specifi- 
cally the physical and spiritual relation of husband and wife, and 
their respective action upon, and duties to each other. 

" The word marriage," says J. P. Bishop, "' is used to signify 
either the act of entering into the marital condition, or the condi- 
tion itself. In the latter, and more frequent legal sense, it is a 
civil status, existing in one man and one woman legally united for 
life, for those civil and social purposes which are based in the dis- 
tinction of sex. Its source is the law of nature, whence it has 
flowed into municipal laws of every civilized country, and into the 
general law of nations. And since it can exist only in pairs, 
and since no persons are compelled, but all who are capable are 
permitted to assume it, marriage may be said to proceed from a 
civil contract between one man and one woman, of the needful 
physical and civil capacity. While the contract remains execu- 
tory, that is, an agreement to marry, it differs in no essential par- 
ticulars from other civil contracts, and an action for damages may 
be maintained in a violation of it. But when the contract becomes 
executed in what the laws recognize as a valid marriage, its nature 
as a contract is merged in the higher nature of the status. And 
though the new relation may retain some similitudes to remind us 
of its origin, the contract does in truth no longer exist, but the 
parties are governed by the law of husband and wife."* 

Some of the peculiarities of marriage, contrasted with ordinary 
contracts, have been forcibly pointed out by Lord Robertson, a 

* Marriage and Divorce, p. 25. 



360 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

distinguished Scotch judge, in a passage which is approvingly 
quoted both by Judge Story* and Mr. Fraser.f " Marriage," he 
says, " is a contract sui generis, $ and differing, in some respects, 
from all other contracts, so that the rules of law which are appli- 
cable in expounding and enforcing other contracts, may not apply 
to this. The contract of marriage is the most important of all 
human contracts. This is the very basis of the whole fabric of 
civilized society. The status of marriage is juris gentium, and 
the foundation of it, like that of all other contracts, resting on the 
consent of parties ; but it differs from other contracts in this, that 
the rights, obligations or duties arising from it, are not left entirely 
to be regulated by the agreements of parties, but are, to a certain 
extent, matters of municipal regulation, over which the parties 
have no control by any declaration of their will ; it confers the 
status of legitimacy on children born in wedlock, with all the 
consequential rights, duties, and privileges, thence arising ; it gives 
rise to the relation of consanguinity and affinity; in short, it per- 
vades the whole system of civil society. Unlike other contracts, 
it cannot, in general, among civilized nations, be dissolved by 
mutual consent ; and it subsists in full force, even although one of 
the parties should be forever rendered incapable, as in the case of 
incurable insanity, or the like, from performing his part of the 
mutual contract. No wonder that the rights, duties, and obliga- 
tions arising from so important a contract, should not be left to the 
discretion or caprice of the contending parties, but should be 
regulated, in many important particulars, by the laws of every 
civilized country. "§ 

Marriage as an Institution, I shall define as a contract made by 
mutual consent, between one man and one woman, who give and 
take one another for husband and wife, each granting to the other 
all the rights and privileges thereto belonging, at the exclusion of 
all others, till death separates them. These exclusive rights and 
privileges are innate in this relation, and cannot be infringed with- 
out incurring penalties proportionate to the magnitude of the 
offence. And as this is the highest relation which it is possible for 
mankind to form — the one designed to give existence to new 
beings on earth, in order to people the heavens, any violation of its 
sacred obligations, is followed by the most disastrous consequences to 
the parties, to society, and to future beings. To assume that God 

^Confl. of Laws. IFraser's Dom. Relations, vol. 1, p. 88. J Of its own kind. 
§ Lord Robertson, in Duntze vs. Levett, R. 58, 385, and 397. 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 361 

lias attached penalties to his laws, that are proportionate to the 
mischief arising from their infringement, is but an acknowledgment 
of his wisdom and justice. 

" The properties of a true Christian marriage," says Martin 
Bucer, " are : 1. That they should live together, unless the call- 
ing of God requires otherwise for a time : 2. That they should 
love one another to the height of dearness, and that in the Lord 
and in the communion of true religion : 3. That the husband bear 
himself as the head and preserver of his wife, instructing her to all 
godliness and integrity of life ; that the wife also be to her hus- 
band a help, according to her place, especially furthering him in 
true worship of God, and next, in all the occasions of civil life. 
And 4. That they defraud not each other of conjugal benevolence, 
as the apostle commands. * Hence, it follows, according to the 
sentence of God, which all Christians ought to b3 ruled by, that 
between those, who, either through obstinacy, helpless inability, can- 
not or will not perform these repeated duties, between these there 
can be no true marriage, nor ought they to be counted man and 
wife." 

The inclination to enter into this contract arises from the perme- 
ation of the Divine conjugial sphere, into universal nature, with 
which man in common with all other creatures, sympathizes. This 
sphere is an emanation of life, and flows out with a perpetual ten- 
dency and endeavor, towards the production of results peculiar to 
itself. Its first effects are conjunctions between pairs of opposite 
polarity, in order for the propagation of their species ; hence the 
medium through which the renewal of creation is carried on, and 
its perpetuity maintained. In each discrete degree, it manifests 
itself according to the media through which it operates. In the 
minerals, it gives rise to motion and affinity ; in vegetables, to or- 
ganized force ; in animals, to instinct ; in man, to love. Emanat- 
ing as it does from the Creator, it pervades universal creation. It 
is that divine spiritual energy which imparts to universal nature, 
animation and evolving activity. . It permeates every object in cre- 
ation as a developing principle — from first to last, from highest to 
lowest. All are recipient subjects of its influence, — from the 
most elevated angel in the highest heaven, to the meanest worm 
that creeps upon the Earth's surface. 

The brutes, having no higher principle to gratify than the in- 
stinctive impulses of their nature, maintain their conjunctive pro- 
* 1 Cor. 7. 



362 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

clivities no longer than their impulses prompt to action. But man, 
in contradistinction to the brute, is immediately receptive of a divine 
principle, which causes him to seek a perpetuity of his rela- 
tion as the chief source of his happiness. Nor can he, without a 
terrible pervertion, harbor a thought of infidelity to the relation 
through which he becomes developed into a higher order of man- 
hood, and from which he derives his chief enjoyment. The first 
essential distinction between man and the beast, is the distinction 
between love and instinct ; and the distinction between love and 
instinct, is the distinction between God and Nature. God is love ; 
Nature is impulse. 

The correlative of love, is wisdom ; the correlative of intuition, is 
impulse. Hence, while man has the natural impulses which 
equally belong to the brute, he is at the seme time endowed with 
love which allies him to God. The characteristic distinction 
between man and beast diminishes in exact ratio as man acts from 
impulse rather than rationality. 

From these brief considerations it will be seen that the natural 
conjugal principle is inherent in the constitution of the sexes, for 
which reason marriage was always lawful and has been reasonably 
adopted in all ages and by all nations. As an institution, it was 
first established by the Creator in Paradise between Adam and 
Eve, and has God's sanction as the only approved means for the 
propagation of mankind. In its orderly use, it is at once the 
representative of divine love and divine wisdom on the ultimate 
plane of life ; and, at the same time, the bi-sexual medium of main- 
taining the balance between the material and spiritual forces. 
For this reason, the concord of society, and the prosperity of a 
nation are always in the ratio of their fidelity to this institution. 
Nor can nations, or individuals, rise higher than their standard of 
conjugal life ; for while the re-productive instincts involve the 
periphery of the individual, his love is the centre or esse of his 
existence, so that his entire being is embraced within the conjugal 
principle. 

The history of the world is not lacking in evidence, that, on the 
one hand, charity and Christianity ; and, on the other, a laxity of 
morals and infidelity, run parallel with each other. I have seldom 
found a person of easy virtue who did not seriously question the 
authority of the Christian Scriptures ; and by far the largest per- 
centage were confirmed pantheists. The French revolution 
furnishes a painful example of this fact. Religion and virtue were 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 363 

shamelessly hunted from the nation, and France was compelled to 
drink the bitter cup of her own abominations. From whatever 
heart or people the Lord is expelled, Satan is sure to make his 
abode, and there generates evil and falsity which give birth to the 
most extravagant ideas and heinous moral deformities. 

Marriage, thus springing from the Divine conjugial sphere, is 
mediumistically creative on the moral as well as the physical plane 
of life. But the quality of its creation is governed by the spiritual 
condition of the parties. We do not gather grapes of thorns, nor 
figs of thistles ; neither will vice give birth to virtue ; but every 
thincr brings forth after its kind. 

I have before shown that all the attributes we have been accus- 
tomed to ascribe to the Supreme Being, are comprehended in 
infinite love and infinite wisdom. His infinity is from the perfection 
of these principles. The love induces action, and the wisdom 
devises means by which it may ultimate in use — the love being 
the motor, the wisdom the directing power in the work of creation. 
From these spring a universal sexuality which exist in the most 
minute particles as well as in the highest intelligence. It is wisdom 
seeking its love, and love responding to its wisdom in the coopera- 
tion of use, so that nuptials are coextensive with mind and matter. 
But the full force of these can operate through the sexes only in 
their associated capacity ; — wisdom flowing into the positive or 
masculine, and love into the negative or feminine receptacles. 
While it is true that both man and woman are receptacles of both 
Divine love and wisdom, it is also true that they do not receive 
these in equal degrees. It i« the predominance of one over the 
other which constitutes the difference of sex. Mentally, as physi- 
cally, they are of an inverse order, or of an opposite polarity. 
Man's love is inmost veiled beneath his wisdom ; whereas, woman's 
wisdom i? inmost veiled beneath her love. Woman is positive 
on the interior plane ; man, on the exterior. She governs from 
within: he, from without. She is intuitive ; he is rational. Out- 
wardly, she was designed to act from love ; he from wisdom. One 
stands over opposite against the other ; — she the correlative of 
divine love ; he the correlative of divine wisdom ; and they become 
the correlative of each other — conjugally united — in the degree 
in which they individually become receptive of those attributes, 
which in their cooperation are the creative principle. 

Wherefore, so far as the husband and wife fail to blend with 
each other, whether on the plane of the mind or the body, they 



364 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

are non-receptive of the creative principle, and become barren 
and unfruitful. A union of souls, in holy aspirations, is as essen- 
tial for the dbvelopment of the highest intellectual and moral 
qualities, as is the union of bodies for the pro-creation of their 
species. The coition of minds opposite in sex, but blending in 
spirit, is the highest, and at the same time, the most prolific prin- 
ciple connected with the human constitution, and that which was 
designed by the Creator to bring forth forever. 

We have seen that the natural conjugal principle is inherent in 
the constitution of the sexes, and exists throughout universal crea- 
tion ; but these are temporary conjunctions rather thaivpermanent 
affinities ; the only end to be attained, being the pro-creation of 
their species. But the question here arises : What constitutes the 
Divine Conjugial, in contradistinction to the natural conjugal, 
which characterizes the lower order of beings, and by what means 
is it obtained ? The present unsettled state of the marriage insti- 
tution, necessarily attaches a special importance to this question ; 
for multitudes of well-meaning persons have utterly failed to dis- 
criminate between a natural and a divine relationship. Having 
met upon the plane of the brute, they find that their higher aspi- 
rations are left unwedded, and as soon as their sensual appetites 
become satiated, possessing no real conjugial sphere within them- 
selves, they chafe under the bonds which hold them in associa- 
tion with each other. Those who have broken loose from these 
bonds and all social restraint, by seeking to obtain what can never 
be found outside of a Christian marriage, furnish the most painful 
examples of human folly ; for in this -way, they destroy the conju- 
gial plane, and leave themselves open to the influx of a sphere of 
universal sensuality. 

In reply to the interrogation which we have now made, I will 
say that Morality, maintained from a sense of divine justice, is the 
first fundamental basis, in the human constitution, of a Christian 
Marriage. This consists in keeping inviolate the Scripture Com- 
mandments, because they are the precepts of the Lord, instituted 
by him for the spiritual welfare of mankind. These command- 
ments having been spoken by the Lord, are permeated by his 
sphere, as light pervades the atmosphere ; and so far as they 
become the basis of human actions, the individual incorporates 
within himself the divine conjugial sphere. Without this, man 
is not a whit better prepared to enjoy the conjugal relation than is 
the brute creation. True, he possesses a higher order of nervous 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 365 

sensibility : but sexually, it is only a higher order of sensuality. 
Hence, the first principles of a conjugial relation are within the 
individual ; and it is the extreme of folly to seek harmony ivithout, 
until it is first established ivithin. 

The Christian Scriptures, therefore, are the fundamental basis 
of all true marriage, and through them, and them alone, we come 
in contact with the fountain of conjugial love, from which we can 
derive those blessings which will unite husband and wife in a closer 
and still more interior union, until they shall become so completely 
one, that she will be the love of his wisdom, and he the wisdom of 
her love ; and thus, as two halves of one whole, they each per- 
form their specific duties in maintaining a life of holy uses. 

u Marriage is a holy state ; arid to enjoy its blessedness we must 
be delivered from the love of self, and become principled in 
supreme love to the Lord, and in mutual love io each -other. For, 
when the husband and the wife are engrossed in the love of self, 
they become disjoined and separated, first in their interior affec- 
tions and thoughts, and then in their outward transactions. But when 
they are principled in love to the Lord and to one another, they 
become more and more conjoined and united, first in their affec- 
tions and thoughts, and then in their ultimate conduct of life." 

In this institution, we have the social basis of society ; for in the 
commerce of the sexes, springing as it does from the condition of 
the individual, is the type of all other commerce among mankind, — 
the chief principle which sustains every secular regulation in human 
association. As a stream can never rise higher than the fountain, 
so commercial pursuits can never become more just and honorable 
in their relations, than the marriage out of which they grow. A 
man, strictly upright, from a religious motive, upon the conjugial 
plane, is equally so in every other department of life. Nor is it 
possible for him to be otherwise ; for injustice without destroys the 
conjugal principle within. But when he manifests evident dis- 
honesty in any of his secular intercourse, though the outward 
seemino" of his marital life may be without blemish, we have the 
most indubitable evidence, a posteriori that in spirit at least, he is 
untrue to the woman to whom he sustains the relation of husband; 
for in his unfaithfulness in one case, he proves his corruption in 
the other. Commercial honesty and libidinous habits are never 
found associated in the same individual, further than is dictated by 
the most worldly policy and supreme selfishness. 

47 



366 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

It is not here pretended that impure men do not often 
faithfully discharge their legal dues, and maintain respectable 
business relations ; they may even be munificent in charity. But 
with such, these are never done from any divine motive, but only 
to promote selfish ends ; for the first principles of religion are 
wanting, and as men cannot act from what they do not possess, 
they have no higher dictation than that arising from expediency. 
A discrete man readily understands that he can usually promote 
his own worldly interest far better, by maintaining his credit, both 
for honesty and generosity, than by fraud and robbery. But let 
such an one owe a debt of honor, unknown to all but himself and 
creditor, were the latter to die without revealing the fact, his 
heirs would never be apprised of their just dues ; for here appro- 
bation is not punished by withholding, 'and conscience is already 
deprived of its sensibility. Libertinism, whether in spirit or act, 
and base dishonesty, are always yoked together as cause and effect, 
and travel hand in hand as twin brothers. 

Both philosophy and observation amply sustain us in the asser- 
tion, that a derangement of the conjugal principle attacks the very 
citadel of all moral and social order, and destroys the first princi- 
ples of defence against the ready ingress of evil. The Adversary 
of human interest evidently clearly foresaw, that if he could dis- 
order the relation of the sexes, by engrafting the greatest deprav- 
ity upon the stock of the strongest instincts, he would unhinge the 
whole fabric of the moral world, and open the floodgates of every 
other vicious habit. Nor could any other avenue have been 
found by which he could have reached the spirit to subordinate it 
to his control. 

" However it may be accounted for," says Dr. Paley, " the 
criminal commerce of the sexes corrupts and depraves the mind 
and the moral character more than any single species of vice 
whatsoever. That ready perception of guilt, that prompt and de- 
cisive resolution against it, which constitutes a virtuous character, 
is seldom found in persons addicted to this indulgence. They pre- 
pare an easy admission for every sin that seeks it ; are, in low life, 
usually the first state in man's progress to the most desperate villa- 
nies; and, in high life, to that lamented dissoluteness of principle, 
which manifests itself in a profligacy of public conduct, and a con- 
tempt of the obligation of religion and of moral probity. Add to 
this, that habits of libertinism incapacitate and indispose the mind 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 367 

for all intellectual, moral, and religious pleasures ; which is a great 
loss to any man's happiness." * 

If the views here set forth be well founded, it will be seen that 
marriage is the key-stone in the arch upon which the social fabric 
rests. Remove this, and all other institutions and regulations are 
left without a basis, and must inevitably fall hy their own weight. 
Any example, therefore, in weakening its moral force, is a public 
calamity to be deprecated by all who feel any interest in maintain- 
ing social order. This institution may justly be regarded as the 
source of all education, of all useful knowledge, of civility and 
sweetness of disposition ; in short, the prime element of civilization. 
By its influence the Earth is tilled, the comforts of life are multi- 
plied, school-houses and colleges are built, the arts and sciences 
are perfected, and the commerce of the world maintained. With- 
out this bond of union between the sexes, the well-spring of all 
human happiness would expire, governments w T ould sink into the 
gulf of anarchy, and religion, hunted from the habitations of men, 
would hasten back to its native heavens. Man, in the mean time, 
stripped of all that is respectable, amiable or hopeful in his charac- 
ter, would prowl in solitude and deserts to supply his rage and 
hunger. The correspondence between Heaven and Earth would 
cease, and the celestial inhabitants would no longer expect nor find 
new accessions to their happy society from this miserable world. 
Its non-observance as a Religious Institution, would degrade wo- 
man to the abject condition of a slave, without right to defend her 
own chastity, and in her degradation man would fall to her condi- 
tion, ignorant and besotted in every hateful thing. Were the re- 
lation of husband and wife to intermit for a single generation, no 
government could thenceforth exist in that country, until terrible 
necessity should force upon it military despotism. Anarchy, until 
that period, would rear its wild misrule, and ravage every human 
interest, and raze every human dwelling. In this very land, flow- 
ing and wantoning in all the blessings of liberty, the dungeon and 
the gibbet would be the only means of public peace, order, and 
safety. 

Even with all the healthy penal and social regulations of society, 
there most unhappily exist many aids and allurements to licentious 
indulgences. Genius, in every age and in every country, has, to a 
great extent, prostituted its elevated powers for the deplorable 
purpose of seducing thoughtless minds to this sin. The unsuspect- 
* Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, Book 3, Part 3, Chap. 2. 



368 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

ing imagination, ignorant of the clangers which are spread before 
it, has, by this gay and fiery serpent, glittering with the spots of 
gold and painted with the colors of enchantment, been allowed to 
pluck the fruit of this forbidden tree and hazard the death 
denounced against the transgressor. The numbers of the poet, 
the delightful melody of song, the grace of the dance, the fascina- 
tions of the chisel, and the spell of the pencil, have been all 
volunteered in the service of Satan for the moral destruction of 
unhappy and bewildered men and women. To finish the work of 
malignity, the stage has lent, often times, all its splendid apparatus 
and equipage of mischief, the shop been converted into a show- 
box of temptation and its owner into a pander of iniquity. Feeble, 
erratic and giddy as the mind of man is in its nature, prepared to 
welcome temptation and to hail every passing sin, can we wonder 
that it should yield to this formidable train of seducers? 

One of the most important uses of the institution under consider- 
ation is to propagate the human race, and thence to extend the 
angelic heavens. It is the nursery from which all immortal beings 
derived their individuality as well as the peculiarity of their tempera- 
ments and dispositions. And as sui generis (of its own kind) is 
the order which the Creator has seen fit to establish in the law of 
successive propagations, there is no denying the fact, that the 
conditions or faculties which predominate in power and activity in 
the parents, when the organic existence of the child commences, 
determine, to a large extent, its future mental and moral dispo- 
sition as well as its physical qualities. These predominant qualities 
once stamped upon the embryo become a part and a leading feature 
of its constitution, from which, to a greater or less extent, it shapes 
its immortal destiny. True, Divine Providence may, and often 
does, bring other and more powerful influences to bear, which may 
eventually subordinate inherited evils ; but it is only through the 
fiery furnace of the most terrible afflictions. But there are an 
untold multitude whose constitutional tendencies have hurried them 
along with maddened fury beyond the plane of reformation, to where 
they that are filthy shall remain filthy still. 

What momentous consequences to the future being thus hang 
upon a moment of sensual gratification ! Into this one act may be 
thrown the elements of a life of integrity and an eternity of hap- 
piness ; or, a life of infamy followed by everlasting misery. From 
the blended harmony of all the social, moral, intellectual, and 
physical qualities in the parents, are born men and women who 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 3G9 

adorn society, and finally become kings and queens in the kingdom 
of God. How tenderly parents watch their babe, and when it 
first begins to exercise its limbs, and then to venture beyond house 
or homestead, with what redoubled solicitude, and in what watch- 
ful affection, pass away their days ! A moiety of this watchful so- 
licitude bestowed at the right time, would, not unfrequently, save 
themselves and their child untold suffering. " Inasmuch as true 
marriage," says Mr. Fernald, "is the conjunction of two minds in 
love and wisdom, so it is by mutual reciprocation of these two 
minds, that all that is delightful and heavenly in affection and 
thought, words and works have birth between them. * * * 
Wherever such a union exists, there are derivations, fructifications, 
and multiplications of delights, from the Great Fountain of love 
and wisdom, which perfect and rejoice the souls so related, and 
more and more perpetually unite them. I need not speak at 
length of the children born from such a love. How can it be 
otherwise than that they will partake of the spirituality of their 
parentage, be delivered from a large share of hereditary evils, in- 
heriting the divine harmonies even from their mother's womb ! 
Children born of this love and not of lust, inherit 'from birth a 
tendency to perceive the things which are of wisdom, and to love 
the things which wisdom teaches. And they grow up with a far 
greater facility into the form and order of Heaven."* 

The Nuptials should he Consummated by one fill- 
ing a Priestly Office 

Marriage is a sacrament^ and should not be desecrated, or so 
lightly esteemed as to allow the nuptials to be consummated in mere- 
ly a jurisprudential manner. Though this may satisfy the demands 
of the law, it cannot satisfy the demands of the Christian. He feels 
that while the penal regulation is highly important for the mainten- 
ance of social order, it has nothing to do with those sacred interior 
rights which belong to this relation. Without the appropriate 
religious ceremonies the sanctity of the nuptials is not duly impressed 
upon the minds of the parties, and though they are conscious of 
satisfying the demands of the social regulations, they fail to be 
duly impressed with the spirilla! importance of this new alliance. 
Notwithstanding consent is the essential of marriage and that 
succeeding ceremonies are its formalities ; yet, it being a represen- 
tative of the marriage of the Lord with the Church, it is but fit 

* God in His Providence, p. 400. 



370 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

that the nuptials should be consummated by one who ministers in 
holy instead of profane things. Moreover, as was shown in the 
chapter on "the Laws of Connection," whatever influence is brought 
to bear in establishing any new order or relation of things, will 
continue, in a greater or less degree of activity, to the end — will 
extend through every period and condition of that relation, how- 
ever long it may continue. 

For the glory and sanctification of the Christian marriage, our 
Lord was pleased to honor that state with his presence and first 
miracle in Cana, of Galilee. And it is a most significant fact that 
this beginning of his miracles was connected with this institution, 
and that, too, of transforming one of the natural elements into the 
very substance that he instituted for the sacrament ; thus present- 
ing to the world the beautiful emblem, that by his presence we can 
convert the natural appetites into spiritual delights (for water repre- 
sents natural and wine divine truth) and thereby be enabled to 
drink of the truths of the Lord's divine wisdom which well up 
through the conjugal sphere of a holy alliance. An invitation on 
the part of the consorts, secured the Lord's presence, who beauti- 
fully illustrated to them the transforming principle of this relation 
when hallowed by His presence; or, in the language of St. Paul, 
" the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbe- 
lieving wife is sanctified by the husband."* Those who truly 
make the Lord their guest at the solemnizing of their nuptial vows, 
incorporate into this relation that divine influence which will 
convert their merely natural lives into a spiritual affinity of soul, 
from which will blossom forth that true happiness which is always 
the result of a union of heart and mind based upon religious and 
moral view r s. 

The Reciprocal Dependence of the Sexes. 

Marriage necessarily implies the union of two opposite princi- 
ples, — a correlation of an Activity , and a Passivity; a Faculty, 
and Capacity; Positive and Negative. These are coopposite 
principles which pervade universal existence. Activity, Faculty, 
and Positive, express a power of imparting or doing ; whereas, 
Passivity, Capacity, and Negative,«express a power of receiving 
or containing. One implies the state or condition of the other ; 
for to impart implies a reception ; a reception implies also some- 
thing imparted, so that the operation of these correlative forces are 
the immediate cause of every phenomenon in creation. 
* 1 Corinthians. 7 : 4. 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 371 

It is from the universal action of this law that the Creator 
represents Himself as the Faculty, or Husband of the Church, 
which implies that the Church is the Capacity, or wife of her 
Spouse, through which the Divine forces find an ultimate expres- 
sion. Life and action are connate principles, — one cannot exist 
without the other. The intensity of action is as the perfection of 
life ; and all actions tend to use, either good or evil. But in the 
Creator, who is goodness itself, we can conceive of no action that 
does not tend to good use : and the necessity of His action is in vir- 
tue of his existence. Hence, the Lord's affection for the Church 
is an inevitable sequence of the constitutional forces inherent within 
Himself, which, in virtue of his infinite Life and Activity, per- 
petually seek to re-beget Himself in mankind, by which the 
heavens become peopled through the prolific principle of His own 
Being. The Will in man is the negative principle to his Under- 
standing ; and it is this that the Lord seeks to impregnate that it 
may bring forth an order of loves that shall bear the image of their 
Progenitor. 

As God and Xature stand one over opposite to the other in the 
relation of Cause and Effect ; the former, perpetually imparting 
His life-giving principle in an endless series of fructifications ; the 
latter, forever bearing the fruits of their relation ; so husband and 
wife, as an epitome of Creation, were designed to forever recipro- 
cally bless each other — he to impart to her the Faculty which 
shall render her love prolific in Goods ; and she to impart to him 
the Capacity by whkm his understanding shall blossom into the 
fruition of Wisdom. As physical!}', so mentally, they are of an 
inverse order, each designed to bestow what the other needs ; nor 
is it possible for either to obtain these needs from any other source. 

While it is true that each sex, by itself, can exercise both affec- 
tion and thought, and each can become the habitation of good and 
truth ; it is equally true that there are certain characteristics of 
mind implanted in the male, that are not proper to the female, 
while there are certain others implanted in the female that do not 
belong to the male. Even the faculties they possess in common 
with each other, they do not possess in the same degree, nor man- 
ifest in the same mode. What is exterior in one, is interior in 
the other. In man, the understanding predominates over the 
will ; in woman, the will predominates over the understanding. 
His constitution is fitted more distinctly to manifest wisdom, hers, 
to manifest love. In his proper development, rationality and in- 



372 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

tellectuality distinguish him from woman ; while emotion and 
strength of affection distinguish her from man. He possesses, by 
nature, an innate faculty of becoming a form of truth ; she of 
good. He is constituted for laborious research, for solid reason- 
ing, for strength and for depth of composition ; she for natural 
elegance, for refined sympathy, for intuitive practical perceptions, 
for that sentiment which comprises harmony, and for the imagina- 
tion's most delicate and beautiful blossoms, which delight the soul 
and elevate the aspirations of man. And it is as impossible to in- 
fringe upon these characteristics, without impairing the cohesive 
force between them, as it would be to destroy the distinctive qual- 
ities of light and heat, and at the same time maintain the order of 
creation. 

In the words of the great English poet, describing Adam and 
Eve: 

" Their sex not equal seemed : 
For contemplation he and valor formed, 
For softness she, and sweet attractive grace ; 
He for God only, she for God in him." 

" The man," says a writer in the New Jerusalem Magazine, "is 
endowed with a more powerful intellect, and with strength and 
courage, because he is appointed to the performance of the more 
active, difficult and laborious duties ; the sphere of his activities is 
more extensive, and his powers are consequently more developed 
and brought into observation ; but, the inspiring spirit of the ardent 
affections of the woman, by which she applies herself to the will- 
desires of the man ; and is there no reason to conclude that, 
deprived of this primary stimulus to exertion, his ivill would 
languish, and his boasted intellect and bodily powers lose their 
activity, and, finally, all manifest existence ? And thus it is with 
the operations of the intellect ; they display themselves while the 
secret sources of their activity in the will are concealed. The man 
might, with some degree of justice, lay claim to superiority on 
account of his strong intellectual and bodily powers, if he could 
confine the exercise of them to himself, and if he could resist the 
influence of woman over his mind ; but the case is otherwise ; for 
the woman is gifted with a perception of his affections, and the 
utmost prudence in moderating them ; and by virtue of the conju- 
gal sphere which she transmits, and which is received by the man, 
she can bring him into subjection to her will, and render all his 
powers subservient to her use. Thus beautifully has the Creator 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 373 

balanced the excellencies of each sex. The man is formed by 
nature as a natural man, to gather good of the natural world, and 
knowledges pertaining to them ; and as a spiritual and rational 
man, to gather and deduce truths of a rational and spiritual kind, 
and to present them to woman, who is formed, not to investigate 
and deduce truths, but to perceive and receive them, and to make 
a return to the man for them, by an accession of satisfaction in 
their enjoyment ; which satisfaction, had it remained with him 
uncommunicated, would have been of a polluted kind, founded in 
self-love and self-esteem ; for while a man loves to acquire and 
possess truth, as a means of delighting the mind of his wife, 
(which is always the case when he desires truth for the sake of 
good,) it is a generous affection ; but if he loves it merely as a means 
of feeding his own self-conceit, it is a mean and defiled affection ; 
in the one case it is of heavenly extraction, in the other it is from 
beneath. 

These principles founded by the Creator in the constitution of 
man, clearly demonstrate the equality of the sexes, and set at 
rest this long mooted subject. But the main question at issue is, 
what is woman's proper sphere of action ? Upon this there has 
been no legitimate discussion in woman's benalf. For those who 
have volunteered and made themselves conspicuous as advocates of 
"woman's rights," were, either by birth or education, so far re- 
moved from the real feminine character, as to fail to comprehend 
woman's needs, or her real nature. But, judging from their own 
peculiarities, they have sought to transform the sphere of woman, 
to that more properly belonging to man. The effect of this has 
been to awaken some interest in those who approximated their own 
masculine condition, and to disgust those who possessed the higher 
womanly qualities. Man, in the mean time, smiling at the ma- 
noeuvres of these female monstrosities, and gently hinting that 
they were men in the habiliments of women. 

The Christian Scriptures also set forth the fact, that the sphere 
of woman is negative, or subordinate, but not inferior to that of 
man, in the same manner as the Church is to the Lord, — the 
Divine Humanity to the Supreme Divinity. In other words, 
woman was made to be receptive of man, not in the sense of higher 
or lower ; but as a passive to an active principle. We do not 
speak of the negative pole of a magnetic bar as being inferior to the 
positive pole, but as a counterpart, and consequently, equal. Their 
difference is not in degree, but in their relation to each other, — 



374 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

he, the faculty ; she, the capacity ; he, the wisdom ; she, the love. 
These principles are coopposite and coequal ; but filling different 
relations to each other, which, in their united action, become a 
re-creative force, which gives birth to moral qualities as well as to 
organized beings. But there could be no re-creations without the 
cooperation of the two spheres, and this cooperation consists in 
the passivity of the capacity to the activity of the faculty. 

It is in this sense that the Apostle exhorts u wives to submit 
themselves unto their own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the 
husband," or wisdom, "is the head of the wife," or love, "even 
as Christ is the head of the church : and he is the Saviour of the 
body. Therefore, as the church is subject to Christ, so let the 
w T ife be to the husband in all things."* The wisdom is the con- 
trolling principle, and it is to this the wife is called upon to submit 
as unto the Lord, and not unto the folly of the man who sustains 
to her the relation of husband. Here the positive and negative 
relation of husband and wife are clearly set forth. But the order 
of the positive influx is designated by having us u know that the 
head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the 
man, and the head of Christ is God,"f — the succession being the 
Divinity, the Divine Humanity, Man, Woman. But woman is 
as much the immediate receptacle of Love, as man is of Wisdom, 
so that he is as much dependent upon her for the love principle, 
as she is upon him for the wisdom ; — at once showing their adap- 
tation to each other, and, at the same time, setting at defiance all 
preeminence in divine qualities. Quantitatively they are the 
same ; qualitatively they are as exterior and interior, not as higher 
or lower, — they are love and wisdom, not as better or worse, but 
one standing over opposite against the other in conformity to the 
divine statement, that " from the beginning of the creation, God 
made them male and female" Their diversity is the ground of 
their unity. 

God, himself, declared to the woman that " thy desire shall be 
unto thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." J It is reasonable 
to suppose that this announcement is not merely an arbitrary enact- 
ment, but an expression of a principle growing out of the relation 
of husband and wife, a law informing her of her interest. The 
necessity of her obedience does not grow out of the law, but out 
of the conditions which gave birth to the law. Hence, she can 
never infringe it with impunity. 
* Bph. 5 : 22-24. 1 1 Cor. 11 : 3. % Gen. 3 : 16. 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 375 

But it should be constantly borne in mind, that a desire to rule 
for any selfish ends destroys genuine love, and takes away its free- 
dom, and with it, its delights. To enjoy the blessedness of so 
holy a state as that of a true marriage, we must first be delivered 
from the love of self, and become principled in supreme love to 
the Lord, and in mutual and unselfish love to each other. For 
conjugial love is derived only from the Divine Being, whose influ- 
ent spiritual forces descend through the married pair, perfecting 
and rendering blissful their union. But when they love them- 
selves, or each other only so far as they can gratify selfish ends, 
they close themselves against orderly spiritual influx, and as this 
takes place they become disjoined and separated, first in their inte- 
rior affections and thoughts, and then in their outward transac- 
tions. But when they are first principled in love to God, he flows 
into every department of their nature, and perfects their nuptials, 
making them no longer twain, but one flesh. 

Our Lord, in his humanity, at all times held himself negative to, 
and thereby receptive of, the Divinity. It was in virtue of this that 
all power was given him, for the Divine operated in and through 
Him, — His humanity being the medium of the Divinity's opera- 
tions upon the ultimate planes of life. "Woman is governed by the 
same law. She becomes great in feminine qualities and the proper 
sphere of action in the ratio as she orderly becomes negative to 
man and allows his forces to operate in and through her. Hence, 
it is that the Apostle enjoins upon " woman to learn in silence with 
all subjection, not suffering her to teach or usurp authority over 
the man, but to be in silence." For, by teaching and usurping 
authority over the man, she becomes positive to him and thereby 
not only destroys her womanly qualities, but at the same time 
deprives herself of the masculine influx by which she can become 
potent in her proper sphere of action. Wherefore it will be seen 
that this injunction of Paul, which has so often outraged the sense 
of turbulent women, is founded in the constitution of the sexes, 
and is evidently the only possible means of female perfection. 

Let us look at the subject under another aspect and note its 
workings in a subverted condition. Probably there are but few 
who live in habitual violation of the Seventh Commandment, 
without, at the same time, being conscious of the fact, that it is 
morally wrong and disastrous to social interest. With such there 
is a struggle between inclination and duty. But let us pass beyond 
these into the ranks of the spiritualist, where the vilest acts are con- 



376 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

scientiously approved, a subversion carried into the religious facul- 
ties, and beyond which it is impossible to go. Here we find abun- 
dant evidence that the principle under consideration is well under- 
stood by the adversaries of human interest ; but that they use it in 
the most disorderly manner, and for the most mischievous ends. 
Their teaching is chiefly through obsessed women ; and it is a 
striking feature, which has often been remarked, that they alternate 
between the most extreme positive and negative conditions. The 
most remarkable of these mediums, those who are regarded as the 
chief oracles of their fraternity, have assured me that they are fre- 
quently rendered so negative to the masculine sphere, that for the 
time, they are deprived of any control of their own chastity. At oth- 
er times they become more positive and resisting than any other 
persons, either male or female, with whom I ever met. In their 
negative state their controlling demons compel them to take on the 
masculine sphere, either psychologically or through illicit relations ; 
from which disorderly condition they react into the positive atti- 
tude of public lecturers. One of this class in Chicago, 111., in the 
early part of 1863, delivered one of her most remarkable discourses 
in the evening after having visited a house of assignation three 
times during the day of her lecture. The elements which she took 
on through her criminal relations became an additional force within 
her which supplied her with the conditions by which her familiar 
spirits could better control her actions and utter their thoughts 
through her. It is a phenomenon which has not failed to attract 
the attention of every critical observer, that in this class the inten- 
sity of the mediumistic condition is in the ratio to their depravity. 
But the law here so potent for evil, when perverted from its 
orderly channel, is still more potent for good when used in the true 
wifely relation. 

On the other hand, husbands are commanded to " love their 
waves, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for 
it ; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washings of 
water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious 
church, not having spot or rinkle, or any such thing ; but that it 
should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their 
wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh ; but nourisheth and cher- 
isheth it, even as the Lord, the church: for we are members of his 
body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man 
leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 377 

they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery : but I speak 
concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of 
you, in particular, so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see 
that she reverence her husband."* 

Here the Apostle shows the perfect correspondence of the rela- 
tion between Christ and the church to the relation between hus- 
band and wife. He draws a comparison of one from the other. 
Nor could a more appropriate one be drawn ; for conjugial love 
which unites the sexes is but a continuation of the divine qualities 
which establish goodness and truth, from which the principles of 
the church are derived. Hence, husband and wife hold the same 
correlative position to each other in the marital institution that the 
emotions and judgment do to the individual. 

The Church is formed by the marriage of Goodness and Truth 
which constitute all real life and orderly actions. The goodness 
is derived from a willing obedience to the Divine Commandments. 
This obedience springs from a love to the Lord which unites the 
Divine and the Human in the relation of an activity and passivity. 
It is the passivity or love that constitutes the Bride, the Lamb's 
wife, and which conceives by the appropriation of the divine forces 
and gives birth to the correlatives, goodness and truth, which con- 
stitutes the " new birth." This birth is in contradistinction to that 
of evil and falsity born of self-love impregnated by the Devil. In 
this consists the two adverse parentages so frequently spoken of 
by our Lord. 

Love and Wisdom are correlative principles, and it is impossible 
for them to enter into a copulative association, in any department 
of nature, without effecting new creations. These creations are as 
much upon the plane of the mind as that of the body ; but as there 
can be no coercive conceptions, there must be a reciprocal affinity 
between the forces from which these creations spring. Hence 
man is commanded, on the one hand, to love the Lord with all his 
heart, that he may become impregnated with the divine forces 
which establish a new life within him ; and on the other, to love 
his wife as his own body, and the wife to see that she reverence 
her husband ; for the church is first formed by the Lord in man, 
and through man in the wife, and afterwards with both, whence it 
becomes complete. 

The wifely reverence for her husband is a union of respect and 
esteem, grounded in affection. This is the prerogative of the nega- 

* Eph. 5 : 25-33. 



378 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

tive party, and is precisely what we are all called upon to exercise 
towards the Lord. But the husband being the positive party, 
must be in a moral condition to laudably demand this reverence, 
otherwise it becomes impossible for the wife to bestow it. For she 
cannot reverence qualities of which she does not wish to become recep- 
tive. She may yield to them in order to gratify unholy desires ; but 
in doing this, they are incorporated into her own constitution and 
become a part of herself. On the other hand, the Lord loves his 
people, not from any innate goodness in them, but in virtue of the 
implantation and operation of His divine forces within them. The 
human becomes the ultimate plane of His own forces* where he 
reproduces His own qualities. It is these that the Lord loves, and 
not the evils begotten by his adversary. The husband, in a like 
manner, is called upon to love the wife as his own body ; for the 
wifely qualities, in contradistinction to the maiden qualities, are 
made out of the man by the incorporation of his virile forces into 
her own constitution, and which determine the spiritual quality of 
the woman, on precisely the same principles that the spiritual 
forces to which w r e become negative, determine the moral qualities 
of the man. 

Moreover, as it is impossible that any thing like a real affinity 
should exist only between insulated parties, and it being extremely 
disastrous for woman to be conjoined to more than one man; or 
man to more than one woman, as such commerce divides and dis- 
perses the conjugial principle out of which the church is formed, 
and leads, first, to the worship of a plurality of gods, and ulti- 
mately, of nature ; therefore, " for this cause shall a man leave his 
father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two 
shall be one flesh." 

It is a Scripture doctrine, and one amply sustained by every prin- 
ciple of natural philosophy, that the Lord flows into all who are 
willing to receive Him, and creates in them a disposition both to 
will and to do of his good pleasure. This is effected through man's 
faith in Him, and at the same time, religiously keeping His com- 
mandments. By this means, man is made passive to, hence recep- 
tive of, the divine sphere which he reflects in a life of uses. The 
two are made one, by sustaining the relation of positive and nega- 
tive to each other, and the church thus formed within man as a 
temple for the Holy Spirit, becomes impregnated by the divine 
sphere, and bears the fruits of their union. Sin is the only divorc- 



MAURI AGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 379 

ing principle between them ; it insulates man from his God, and 
leaves him exposed to the fury of every infernal blast. 

As man is conjoined to his Lord by the appropriation of his di- 
vine sphere, so, in like manner, the wife is conjoined to her hus- 
band by the appropriation of his virtue. The magnetic forces flow- 
ing from the more positive sphere of the husband, pervade the 
wife in the same manner as man is pervaded by the Lord. The 
quality of the husband's virile force, depends upon his conjunction 
with, or affinity for, good or evil ; for he is but the medium 
through which the wife derives this force from the Lord : but it 
partakes of every quality of the man, as water of the soil, through 
which it passes. Hence, her condition is determined by his — she 
reflects, in the degree of her susceptibility, what he bestows, as 
man reflects the image of God. 

I believe that woman is innately true to the conjugial relation — 
that the disorderly influence under which she too often acts, is from 
the man to whom she yields herself receptive. This influence may 
be derived from the husband, though correct in his habits, while at 
the same time looking and lusting for things forbidden ; or it may 
be derived from a third person with whom the wife may be in 
friendly association, all unconscious of his inner depravity. For 
the security of conjugal happiness, it becomes imperative on the 
part of the husband, that he set a double watch on his own desires 
to see that he imparts nothing to the wife that shall become prolific 
in her for evil ; and for tlie wife to be no less vigilant in detecting 
and avoiding the influx of every thing that will in any way injure 
or contaminate the conjugial principle. 

The sexes, ignorant of the laws by which they are governed, 
have unwittingly allowed the heterogeneous commerce of human 
spheres to become fearfully extensive. Unregenerated and open 
to the influx of all that is evil, they have absorbed the lustful spheres 
of each other until they have become enfeebled in moral rectitude, 
obtuse in their perceptions of God ; and society is shaken to its 
foundation. These misfortunes are increasing in a geometrical 
progression, and, without any interference of Divine Providence in 
man's behalf, he will soon reach that state of anarchy which will 
culminate in such terrible blackness of the moral heavens as will 
exclude the light of the Sun of Righteousness and enclose man 
within the sphere of his own debasing and bewildering abomina- 
tions. 



380 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

For infinitely wise purposes the Creator has seen fit to so 
arrange the constitution of the sexes that each is preeminently 
receptive of those principles which are a counterpart to the other, 
so that the creative sphere is the result of correlative forces. This 
rule is universal in its application. Man may re-beget himself while 
actuated by no higher principles than the brute ; but an epitome of 
the divine attributes is brought forth only by the spiritual cooper- 
ation of the two spheres — the power being in the ratio of the per- 
fection of the union. Husband and wife wedded in every depart- 
ment of their nature, and at the same time mutually conjoined to 
the source of all strength, become not only creative, but a divine 
fortress built out into the material world, against which no power 
can ever prove successful. In their united capacity they become 
receptive of the bi-sexual sphere of the Creator, which is more 
potent than all other forces. This operates in and through them to 
maintain the order of existence by keeping at bay every disintegrat- 
ing and weakening influence. " I in them and they in me," is a truth 
having its basis in the cooperation of the Divine with the human. 
Without a union with God there is no moral reliance, no cohesive 
force, no real strength of character. A sponge is not more absorb- 
ent of water than is an unfaithful spouse of every disintregating 
and weakening influence. 

Keeping these principles in view, it is easy to account for that 
extreme weakness and the multiplied misfortunes which usually 
accompany domestic discords ; and the' great liability of a total 
ruin in estate and character, in case of separation of husband and 
wife. * In every such instance, they not only deprive themselves of 
the essential conditions of happiness and prosperity which arise 
from a protective sphere of which they become receptive in their 
wedded relation ; but they lay themselves open to the infestation 
of everv evil. These evils, by unduly stimulating the emotions 
and, at the same time, bewildering the judgment, disqualify them 
for judicious action, and render them easy victims to the perfidy 
of. others. So far as they are mutually at fault they become dis- 
joined, first, from heaven, and then from each other, and conjoined 
to the hells whence every misfortune is derived. A ship rent in 
two equal parts would scarce be more sure to founder than antag- 
onistic or separated consorts, — for a house divided against itself can- 
not stand. They are like Truth, deprived of its Good ; and 
Good of its Truth, neither of which, separated, have any proper 
sphere of action, and necessarily degenerates into falsity and evil. 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 381 

Though evils can never affinitize, they do cooperate to the end 
that they may propagate their own conditions ; but they have no 
power to undo their wrongs. The ability to resist evil, and the 
wisdom essential to a proper choice of the right, is derived alone 
from Omnipotence ; and this can be obtained only so far as there 
is a union between man and his Maker. All antagonistic and 
discordant spheres emanate from the pit, not from heaven. 

If it be true that God combines within himself both Goodness 
and Truth, inasmuch as these cannot be divorced from each other, 
it is clearly evident that he can flow into created intelligences, 
only in the degree in which they are capable of receiving these 
qualities in their united action. Man and woman, in their individ- 
ual capacity, are receptive of them only in certain relative degrees. 
But united like the right and left hand, wherein are concentrated 
the strength of the body, they become powerful in the execution 
of their designs. Wisdom in the husband and love in the wife, 
are manifestations of the Divine through them ; and these influent 
principles are in the degree in which the parties abstain from evil, 
and are conjoined to each other for ends of use. In this condition, 
they become u temples of the living God ; and God hath said, I 
will dwell in them and walk in them ; and I will be their God and 
they shall be my people." * 

The cooperation of the heart and lungs, is no more essential 
to the maintenance of the physical constitution, than is the associ- 
ated action of husband and wife for the maintenance of the condi- 
tions of temporal and spiritual prosperity. On the one hand, to 
suspend the systalic movements of the heart is to deprive the lungs of 
the power of respiration ; and on the other, the heart without the 
respiration of the lungs, is deprived of the serial influx by which 
it can maintain its action, and becomes incapable of inducing either 
motion or sensation. To separate their action is like separating 
essence from form — form being the distinguishing feature or par- 
ticular disposition of the particles of matter which is the basis or 
substratum of all bodies ; essence being the constitution of the in- 
sensible parts on which their properties depend, and which consti- 
tutes the peculiar nature of beings or substances. So, likewise, the 
husband and wife hold a corresponding relation to each other. He 
is her lungs, she his heart ; he is the wisdom of her love, she the 
love of his wisdom ; he the inspiration of her life, she the life of his 
inspiration ; her love from within vales his wisdom, and his wis- 

*2 Cor. 6; 16. 



382 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

dom from without enters into her love ; he the impregnating 
essence, she the formative principle ; wherefore, they were created 
to be morally and spiritually one. " In the beginning He made them 
male and female." From this we see the imperative necessity of 
obedience to the divine injunction, " What God hath joined 
together let not man put asunder." To separate them is, on the 
one hand, to deprive the husband of those principles derived from 
the wife which exalt his receptibility, and which are essential to 
the perfection of his manhood ; and on the other, to deprive the 
wife of the principles taken trom the husband, and therefore, sup- 
plemental to her, but which are essential to her womanhood. 
There are no substitutes for this arrangement. An exchange of 
these qualities out of wedlock holds no connection with the moral 
sentiments, consequently none with the divine, hence only degrades 
instead of elevating each other. 

Wisdom can exist in man only by means of his love of growing 
wise, and this love is derived from the wife as the product of her 
love of his wisdom. The woman being the formative principle, 
she moulds the understanding of her husband by her will, and his 
wisdom by her love ; and he energizes her love by the action of his 
wisdom. I here use the terms, Will and Understanding, in a cor- 
relative sense — the will being correlative to the understanding, 
and love to wisdom. But love and will are but the positive and 
negative action of the same principle, so likewise will and under- 
standing. In this sense love is correlative to the will, and wisdom 
to the understanding. Man has two hands which hold a positive 
and negative relation one to the other, two lobes of the brain, &c; 
in this sense they are correlative to each other ; but man as a unit 
is correlative to woman. The human Love and Wisdom are the 
negative principles of the individual and the immediate receptacles 
of Divine Love and Wisdom. It has been said that married parties 
have an interior beauty which reflects itself upon the outward 
countenance, the man deriving from the wife the ruddy bloom of 
her love, and the wife from the man the fair splendor of his wis- 
dom, so that there appears in each a human fullness. 

True, all persons, in their individual capacity, are receptive of 
every divine principle; but only in relative degrees, — man being 
more receptive of wisdom than love, whereas, woman is more 
receptive of love than wisdom. As water takes the form of the 
vessel which contains it, so likewise whatever elements flow into 
individuals, are transformed by them into their own condition, and 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 383 

become an additional force within them. The essential primary 
distinction of sex consists in man's having been designed by 
his Creator to become the form, or representative of wisdom, 
and woman the form, or representative of love, — neither of which 
have any proper sphere of action un wedded. Wisdom without 
love is without incentive to effort; and love without wisdom is 
like a ship under full sail without master or helm. If the man 
himself is in order, whatever influence he becomes receptive of 
from woman, assumes in him an orderly form, and he becomes 
wise in the means of use. It was in this sense that God said, " I 
will make him a help-meet," or, in the more expressive form of 
the old Hebrew tongue, " one standing over opposite against the 
other" The concord and equilibrium between Love and Wisdom 
was lost by man's fall from his original pristine purity. 

To effect the accomplishment of any great and divine work, the 
balance of power must be maintained. To this end, 700 wives 
and 300 concubines were granted to Solomon, " whose wisdom 
excelled the wisdom of all the children of the East country, and 
all the wisdom of Egypt, — being wiser than all men."* Through 
him God accomplished the greatest work that was ever accom- 
plished through man. The holding in subordination the nations 
of the earth, and making them voluntary contributors to him, and 
at the same time carrying on the construction of a building so 
vast and complicated as the temple, prepared in different sections 
of the country and among different nations, and with such degree 
of accuracy that the various parts came together without the sound 
of a hammer or any tool, a temple representative of man's relation 
to God, required a degree of wisdom which God alone could give. 
This wisdom must be balanced by the opposite principle, and one 
thousand of the choicest women were called to administer their 
love to his needs. During the progress of this stupendous work 
he maintained his integrity and fidelity to God. Both reason and 
physiology will sustain us in the assertion, that during this period, 
he was neither corrupting his morals, nor exhausting his vital forces 
by an unrestrained libidinous indulgence with the women to whom 
he was conjoined. Their elements were given him for a higher 
and a holier purpose, — they became to him an inexhaustible foun- 
tain of love, which, flowing into him, became wisdom, orderly in 
form, and ultimated itself in works of Divine use. It was only 
subsequent to his allowing himself to wander after "many strange 
* 1 Kings, 4 : 30. 



384 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

women," the worshipers of idols, — and, therefore, whose real sym- 
pathies were not with him, — that his heart in his old age was 
" turned away after other gods," and he " did evil in the sight of 
thuLord." 

The unparalleled, successful, but short career, of Napoleon Bona- 
parte, was more the effect of the love of a true woman of the highest 
natural order who gave to him all the womanly elements of her 
noble nature, than of his own inherent powers. The harmonious 
combination of the two spheres became in him an all conquering 
force. The success of his career was confined within the period 
of an unbroken love-relationship. He supplanted Josephine for 
one less gifted in the higher womanly qualities, whose love turned 
upon herself more than upon the husband or the welfare of the 
nation, and she became to him the Delilah who shaved off the 
seven locks of his head so that his strength went from him. Napo- 
leon was the star of Josephine. Maria was the eclipse of Napo- 
leon. In divorcing the former and marrying the latter, he sacri- 
ficed the higher principles for the lower, outraged the institutions of 
God, and presented to the world a conspicuous and terrible example 
of a universal law, viz.: That theivrong is a final defeat. And in 
this case, as in all others, the Disposer of human destinies used the 
very means to effect his downfall that were unlawfully intended 
to perpetuate his name and maintain his empire. The Catholics, 
ignorant of this principle, have supposed that his ruin was the result 
of the curse which the Pope pronounced upon him, instead of 
being the legitimate effect of the infringement of a law universal 
in its operations. The secret of all real strength of every true 
man, lies in the conjugial plane of his constitution, and the woman 
who is the best adapted to his peculiar temperament, will be the 
most successful in bringing into active existence all of his peculiar 
characteristics and latent qualities. Nor can he ever exhibit the 
higher qualities of manhood without his latent forces being 
quickened and energized by woman. 

Bearing in mind the fact that love is a divine principle,* being 
the negative attribute of the Supreme Being, and the incentive to 
all effort, it is easy to understand why it becomes in woman the 
developing and sustaining property of the positive element of wis- 
dom in man ; for everywhere throughout universal nature, these 
cooperative forces sustain a definite and exact relationship one to 
the other. Love in the wife, which causes her to render a willing 
*1 John 4 : 7. 



MAKRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 385 

acquiescence to the wisdom of the husband, is infinitely more 
important than mere feminine intelligence. It energizes every 
manly quality and creates a new force in the male constitution. A 
well disciplined mind, either in man or woman, is an accomplish- 
ment earnestly to be coveted. But when it reaches only such a 
limited attainment as to develope an overbearing egotism, it can 
scarcely be said to be a blessing. With woman it submerges her 
love in a disordered masculinity, wholly incompatible with feminine 
qualities. So far as this takes place, she destroys the conditions 
by which she can sustain the negative principle of conjugal life, 
whence she deprives both herself and husband of the most poten- 
tial forces connected with the human constitution. He, for the 
want of a counter element, is rendered impotent on both the nat- 
ural and spiritual plane ; and she, having destroyed the ability of 
performing the duties of either man or woman, becomes a social 
hermaphrodite. 

Moreover, love being an emanation from the Divine, it conjoins 
itself to all that is good and pure within us, and like a crystal 
stream, freights upon its placid bosom the best elements of human 
nature ; whereas lust being an emanation from hell, conjoins to 
all that is evil within us and bears in its turbid stream the worst 
elements of diseased humanity. Hence to cohabit without love is 
to exchange and propagate in the human constitution the parasitic 
forms from the spiritual domain of evil, which lay waste and con- 
sume every divine quality. To enter the marital relation with no 
other feelings than worldly interest, dictated by a desire of a home, 
opulence, or baser still, to unite inherited estates, while the heart 
is held by another or interiorly finds no affinity in the consort, is to 
prostitute the soul with all its divine qualities to the service of the 
flesh. Their union is deprived of every hallowed influence, and 
they meet only on the plane of lust, and become to each other a 
sluice-way for the ingress of every evil — living in spiritual har- 
lotry, but upon the more popular and restricted side of the broad- 
way of death. They soon become aware that to mingle is a 
mutual repulsion, if not disgust and hatred, which only adds to 
their embarrassment ; and they are made to drag out a wretched 
existence, deprived of the associations of those who could afford 
them pleasure ; or, if enjoyed at all, it is at the expense of charac- 
ter, chastity and religion, which is a still greater evil. In this way, 
having once yielded to the devices of Satan in prostituting a sacred 
institution to base ends, whether through their own indiscretion or 



386 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

that of unregenerated and selfish parents who may' have acted as 
his vicegerents, they are robbed of all worldly enjoyment and of 
the best means of a preparation for heaven. " All that is in the 
world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the pride 
of life, is not of the Father but of the world."* 

Man has been so created that he is equally open to the influx of 
heaven and hell. During his earthly existence he is the battle 
ground between the contending forces of the two. The victory 
turns upon the side of the decision of the individual. The Will, 
held sacred by the Lord, is the banner which the individual un- 
furls amid the contending hosts, against the swaying of which 
neither heaven nor hell can ever prevail. Hence the individual is 
the arbiter of his own destiny. His loves are the conjunctive 
principles between corresponding subjective and objective condi- 
tions. No others can ever become wedded, though they may be- 
come conjoined. The union of the sexes is a union of these loves : 
if they are from heaven, they re-produce the blessings which ever 
flow from the Divine sphere ; if from hell, they generate correspond- 
ing conditions. It is an inevitable law that we cannot gather 
grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. The miseries of conjugal 
life, consist, to a large degree, in reaping what they have sown. If 
they have sown to the flesh they must reap corruption. Each re- 
ceives the principles he weds, though these principles may not be 
embodied in the consort. Hence, there are no just grounds of com- 
plaint if they do not receive what did not enter the ruling motive of 
the compact. In entering into the conjugal relation the ruling con- 
sideration should be to form such an alliance as is believed to be best 
calculated to serve in regenerating the life of each other, and so fit 
the parties to dwell together in Heaven forever. Without this, in 
whatever aspect we may consider it, life is a failure ; with it, it is a 
glorious success. Love springing from principles of adaptation to 
each other, is the basis of all real marriage. This continually tends 
to unite them in a closer and still more interior union ; whereas, 
lust tends to impede truths, to blind the understanding, to corrupt 
the heart, and to separate the parties. 

The Respective Duties of Husband and Wife. 

Growing out of these reciprocal dependencies of the sexes are 
certain specific duties which they respectively owe to each other. 
These duties springing from the constitutional difference between 
* 1 John 11 : 16. 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 387 

them, are of such a sexual nature that neither can properly perform 
the obligations of the other. " In the duties proper to husband, 
the primary agent is understanding, thought, and wisdom ; whereas, 
in the duties proper to wives, the primary agent is will, affection, 
and love ; and the wife from the latter performs her duties, and 
the husband from the former performs his ; wherefore their duties 
are naturally different, but still conjunctive [in a successive series. 
Many believe that women can perform the duties of men, if they 
are initiated therein at an early age, as boys are. They may 
indeed be initiated into the practice of such duties, but not into the 
judgment on which the propriety of duties interiorly depends ; 
wherefore such women as have been initiated into the duties of 
men, are bound in matters of judgment to consult men, and then, 
if they are left to their own disposal, they select from the counsel 
of men that which suits their own inclination. Some also suppose 
that women are equally capable with man of elevating their intel- 
lectual vision, and into the same sphere of light, and viewing 
things with the same depth ; and they have been led into this opin- 
ion by the writings of certain learned authoresses ; but these writ- 
ings when examined in the spiritual world in the presence of the 
authoresses, were found to be the productions, not of judgment and 
wisdom, but of ingenuity and wit ; and what proceeds from these 
on account of the elegance and neatness of the style in which 
it is written, has the appearance of sublimity and erudition; yet 
only in the eyes of those who dignify all ingenuity by the name of 
w r isdom. In like manner men cannot enter into the duties proper 
to women, and perform them aright, because they are not in the 
affections of woman, which are altogether distinct from the affect- 
ions of man."* 

These insuperable constitutional barriers between the preroga- 
tives of the sexes, will clearly designate the proper sphere of 
action of each, and at the same time demonstrate the fact to every 
rational mind, that each is endowed with certain peculiar abilities 
which are not given to the other. It is the harmonious relation of 
these, each in their orderly sphere of action, that constitutes mar- 
riage, — it is a union of things opposite, sustained by an affinity they 
have for each other. 

Pursuits and habits of life form the basis for corresponding mental 
and moral qualities. And as these pursuits and habits, to a large 
degree, become the external objects of daily observation and contem- 
* Conjugial Love, No. 175. 



388 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

plation, the mind takes its form from them, as the mind of the child 
from that of the parent ; and through the influence of the mind upon 
the body, the physical configuration and movements partake of the 
mental characteristics. Moreover, from every person there flows a 
spiritual sphere, as the perfume from the flower, derived from the 
affections of the individual love, and this encompasses and infuses 
itself into the natural sphere of the body, so that the two spheres 
are conjoined as one ; hence, this sphere is made up of all the 
spiritual and physical qualities and characteristics of the individual. 
The inclinations of the sexes toward each other is in virtue of this 
ever proceeding sphere from them ; and the intensity of these in- 
clinations, is in the ratio of the difference in the sexual qualities 
from which this sphere is derived, attraction being an expression of 
the affinity of things coopposite. So far, therefore, as the pursuits 
and habits of men and women lose their distinctive characteristics, 
they weaken, and finally destroy, the attractive forces between 
them. 

If proof of this is needed, it is abundantly furnished by even a 
casual observation of men and women who have adapted them- 
selves to habits of thinking and daily avocations which are inap- 
propriate to their sex. Though it is true that their peculiar 
mental qualities first led them into these avocations, nevertheless we 
find them becoming more and more unsexed by their habits and 
pursuits. The marts of trade, the heavy labor of the shop and the 
field, and philosophical researches, blunt the finer sensibilities of 
the female mind, render her physically masculine, destroy her 
grace of movement and sweetness of expression ; while habitual 
household duties, the care of infants, the use of the needle and 
the branches of trade more properly belonging to women, render 
weak and effeminate the masculine constitution. 

After saying this much in reference to the distinctive peculiarities 
of the sexes and their respective pursuits, it next devolves upon us 
to speak of their specific duties to each other. 

The first of all the duties is to individually restrain within them- 
selves everything which runs counter to the Scripture Command- 
ments ; and thus become panoplied within the divine sphere, 
through which no disintegrating influence can ever enter. In 
doing this, they form the conditions — and it is the only means by 
which the conditions can be formed — into which conjugial love 
flows. The constant prayer should be, " deliver us from evil," 
for this is the only disintegrating principle, It first deranges and 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 389 

divides the affections within, which causes a looking and lusting for 
things forbidden, thence creates antagonisms between the consorts. 
Conjugial love flows from the pure fount of God — it is the first 
delectable fruits of regeneration — the paradisiacal garden to which 
man can return by subduing himself. No spiritual union can be 
formed only in the degree in which evils are removed from each 
of the parties. 

From an unregenerated will, as miasma from filthy marshes, 
arises every antagonistic principle. It is the self-will of each that 
needs to be given up to Him from whom the conjugial sphere 
flows. The merely giving up of the will of one to the demands 
of the other, will never cement the inner bond. Though a species of 
conjunction may take place from the habitual submission of the 
wife to the arbitrary demands of the husband, or quiet preserved 
from the acquiescence of an effeminate husband to an usurping 
woman, it is only in the outward seeming, while the souls of each 
long for more congenial associations. No mere conformity of one 
to the other, no caressing, flattery, pride, or opulence, can ever 
unite two souls, evil in themselves, in the holy bonds of an inner 
marriage. They, like the brutes, may live in conjunctive har- 
mony ; but not in spiritual affinity. This harmony is not real, but 
only apparent, arising from mere physical attractions and the force 
of external circumstances, and forms but an outward covering which 
conceals the war within. Animation and gayety may characterize 
the visible life ; but there is an inner death. The cup of pleasure 
from which they sip is drugged with mortal poison ; for to cohabit 
without love is to hasten the divorce of the soul from the body by 
the antagonism between the outer and inner life. 

The real work to be done, is to give up the natural or selfish 
will to the will of the Lord. In doing this it becomes easy to con- 
form to the will of each other. The influx of the Divine will 
sets in order the human will, so that there is no longer any basis 
of discord. Both become filled with the highest attractive forces, 
extending from the inner to the outer life, — both actuated by 
reciprocal impulses, springing from the same primeval source of 
love and harmony. The wife loves the divine wisdom in the hus- 
band ; the husband the divine love in the wife. These are the 
only principles that can be really loved. Lesser things may be 
admired and excite the carnal inclinations, or gratify selfish ambi- 
tions, but they cannot be loved, for love is divine and can affinitize 
only with its correlative principle. 



390 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

I cannot here forbear alluding to the pernicious habit which 
some, otherwise respectable women, have of yielding their persons 
to their husbands for the sake of accomplishing some worldly and 
selfish end. An indiscreet but designing woman frequently resorts 
to the vile stratagem of tempting her husband, and at the same 
time keeping him at bay until he is constrained to make her some 
liberal offer for the marital rights, and then acquiesces to his 
desire ; in this way making merchandize of the conjugal principle 
and effectually paving the way for the most mischievous results. 
The mildest name that can be applied to such conduct is legalized 
harlotry, the tendency of which is to obliterate the sacredness of 
this relation and to generate in the husband a desire to extend his 
commerce. 

But there is no security of conjugal happiness outside of a regen- 
erated condition. The Creator has wisely so arranged the consti- 
tution of man that his greatest happiness is but the reaction from 
generous deeds. The highest enjoyment springs from a conscious- 
ness of a faithful discharge of every duty to others. The forgetting 
of self, to the end that they may add new pleasures to their asso- 
ciates, is said to be the peculiar characteristics of angels. From 
these generous deeds they reap their golden and luxuriant harvest 
of exquisite delight. Selfish greed forms no part of their existence. 
Like their Lord they go about doing good. Selfishness paralyzes 
the conscience, warps the judgment and cankers the soul. It 
divorces man from his God and associates him with the damned. 
To expect happiness from this condition of things, but proves how 
insane it is capable of rendering the human mind. To selfishly seek 
our own pleasure instead of promoting the enjoyment of others, is 
to open the avenues of the soul for the ingress of every disorder. 
It is clearly evident that God never designed that mankind should 
be lulled into a fatal lethargy in the conjugal relation so long as 
they are in their sins and making no progress towards a divine life. 
The evil is not usually so much in their unfitness to each other, as 
is too frequently supposed, as in this lack of individual harmony. 
Those pleasing qualities which united them in wedlock may be 
safely considered, in a large majority of cases at least, a sufficient 
basis upon which to build the beautiful temple of conjugial happi- 
ness, as soon as they individually establish concord within. When 
each forget their own pleasure in a loving desire to promote the 
enjoyment of the other, they dislodge the adversary of their 
domestic happiness and enthrone the angel of peace. But so long 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 391 

as self-love bears rule, by each seeking to subordinate the other, it 
hedges up the way of influx to every harmonizing influence and 
generates discordant elements which early ripen into dissatisfaction 
and reciprocal contempt. 

It is usually found in all marital relations, that the most generous 
and faithful party is the least dissatisfied, though they have much 
the greatest reason for complaint. It is but natural that it should 
be so ; for their purity of motive, fidelity to the right, and generous 
desire to please, happily create within them the conditions of 
internal peace and social satisfaction ; while miscreants, carrying 
within themselves the apocalyptic plagues, are neither satisfied 
with their own conduct nor that of those with whom they are asso- 
ciated. Being made wretched from the war within, at the same 
time conscious of their own guilt, they are censorious and wrathful 
against others, and maddened at the discipline of Divine Providence. 

Nevertheless, a wise choice in concluding this most important 
bond of human life, is undoubtedly the safest preliminary means by 
which married people can render their connection cheerful and 
happy. But usually there are too many obstacles in the way of 
this to ensure any great degree of success. The association before 
marriage is not usually sufficiently intimate or long to develop all 
the different traits of character to each other ; and what is still 
more, the most objectionable peculiarities are held in restraint as 
much as possible until the nuptials are consummated, when they 
unwisely suppose they have a right to let loose those blemishes of 
character and disposition with which they have imposed upon each 
other. The reaction greatly weakens, if it does not paralyze, their 
affection and confidence ; whereas, a frank confession before mar- 
riage would have lowered the standard of their expectations, 
inspired respect for each other and laid the foundation for a more 
rational and enduring love. I do not mean that wholesale and 
unmeaning confession of one's imperfections which is so frequently 
resorted to as an additional means of deception, indicating that they 
are so conscientious that they feel themselves to be full of evil, but 
hardly know in what it consists, and have no knowledge of any 
particular failing ; but I mean that moral criticism of their weak- 
ness and strength held up in a deserving contrast with each other, 
which a subsequent acquaintance in the practical relations of life 
will fully sustain. By this means they enter into a marriage of 
the understanding and moral sentiments as w*ell as the feelings, 
without which before the honey-moon wanes, hope having fled and 



392 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

passions over, they begin to lose their interest in each other, and 
feeling that they have been imposed upon, they combat the wrong 
in ill temper and soon ferment the most unhappy discords. 

A large number of married persons would never have formed 
such an alliance had they previously understood the imperfections 
of their partner. But the chief difficulty arises from the blind- 
ness of each to their own faults, and the expectation of finding 
perfection in the other. The realities of life with its multiplied 
cares and perplexities soon lop off their fancied wings, rndlo they 
find simply a human being with all their evils yet upon them, 
where they had looked for an angel ; and now, instead of trying to 
develop each the other into their ideal, thus making them what 
they had hoped to find them, and thereby performing a divine work, 
they commence a system of angry disputations and censorious re- 
proofs which soon blunt the finer sensibilities of the soul — for a 
reproof from the passions instead of the moral sentiments, always 
conveys an evil with it — they soon sink into a moral lethargy, 
believing it out of their power to please each the other, and con- 
clude that they will drag through life as best they may, or seek 
for happiness in other associations. 

The second duty of married partners, is for each to point out in 
a plain and distinct manner, but in a spirit of kindness and love, 
the imperfections of the other, and then, like rational beings, delib- 
erately set themselves to work to remedy them that they may be- 
come help-meets in fitting each other for a higher state of exist- 
ence ; and they may be assured that life will prove sufficiently 
short for the accomplishment of so great and desirable an object. 
In this way they make life practical, happy and useful, and effect- 
ually lay the foundation for a perpetual union and happiness here- 
after. 

" Married in God, thus only sure 
To re-unite in Heaven again." 

I cannot approve of the course so frequently recommended, of 
overlooking or becoming blind to each other's imperfections ; for 
such conduct is like that of a weak and silly parent who pets and 
forbears with his child, until his evils become fastened to him, or 
engrafted into his constitution. Life, in our sinful state, is not a 
holiday, to be spent in mere sensual delights, but a period allotted 
us for astern, uncompromising discipline in overcoming our inherited 
and acquired evils. Infested by sin within and surrounded by it 
without, and every step of the journey of life beset with all the 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 393 

allurements that Satan can devise, there is no time to spend in 
useless disputations, or to gratify invective feelings. 

I do not believe that a perfect harmony of temper, disposition 
and thinking, of capacities and taste is necessarily required to 
constitute matrimonial happiness ; the contrary may sometimes 
afford more felicity, if the disparity be not too great, and extend 
not to essential principles. A bond that is founded on mutual 
interest, and in which all the troubles one party suffers, equally 
affect the other, renders it frequently necessary that the too great 
vivacity, the rash impetuosity of the husband should be tempered 
by gentleness, and even sometimes by a little coolness on the part 
of the wife, and vice versa, to prevent many heedless steps and 
their consequences. Many families would also be reduced to total 
ruin if man and wife were animated with an equal propensity for 
splendor, luxury and extravagance, or for immoderate benevolence 
and sociability ; and as our young novel readers commonly shape the 
ideal picture of their future partners after their own dear self or the 
fictitious character held before the distorted imagination in the 
tales of romance, the interference of an old morose father or 
guardian is sometimes very beneficial to them, so the restraining 
influence of a more considerate and discreet companion is often 
necessary to maintain the order or interest of the family. But I 
pity the man whose phlegmatic wife mixes water with every drop 
of joy which the hand of rosy-colored fancy administers to his 
life, rousing him from every blissful dream of happiness, returning 
frigid replies to his warmest discourses, and destroying the fairest 
creatures of his imagination by the want of fellow-feeling — who, 
like the worm, sees nothing beyond her own groveling desires and 
is satisfied to feed upon dust. 

It greatly behooves married persons to avoid a censorious and 
fault-finding disposition, one towards the other. It is not unfre- 
quently the case, that one or the other of the parties grows into 
such habitual dissatisfaction with all the other does or says, as to 
destroy the felicity of the domestic life, and so use the marital relation 
as a bond to hold a victim upon whom they can discharge their 
vengeance ; or, if both be at fault, to keep in proximity two hostile 
forces which wage perpetual war upon each other. The disgust- 
ing and mischievous habit which many men have of disparaging 
their wives in the presence of others, though in sport, is most repre- 
hensible ; representing them as silly, indiscreet, poor housekeepers, 
ill-tempered, ugly in form and speech, advising others never to marry 



394 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

as they have been so deeply disappointed, wishing somebody to 
take their wife off their hands, or that they had never married, 
etc., etc., all of which is extremely annoying to any woman, and 
a virtual declaration that her • husband is totally dissatisfied with 
her. A woman whose love can continue to survive such insults 
daily heaped upon her, is deserving of the fullest confidence, and 
of the highest praise, for she proves herself to be in possession of 
that forgiveness, fidelity, and forbearance, which adorns her with the 
brilliant character of a faithful wife. 

If we follow out the results of such conduct, it will be seen 
that, like all other vicious habits, it is productive of no good, but 
of much mischief to both parties. The affections in woman are the 
most potent principle, either for weal or wo, of her constitution ; 
and this naturally goes out to her husband to unite with his wis- 
dom ; but every attempt meeting with a repulse, it is forced back 
upon herself; and now having lost its order, it becomes in her a 
potent force of disorder, (for all essence has a corresponding sub- 
stance,) which must necessarily find some ultimate expression. 
The form of this expression will depend upon the peculiarities of 
her mental and physical qualities. If she naturally possesses an 
irritable disposition, it will unduly stimulate combativeness and 
destructiveness, the magnetic poles of the brain, and vent itself in 
a war of words. If her sense of chastity is weak, and her appro- 
bativeness and self-esteem small, she will be inclined to seek other 
associations with whom she can gratify her conjugal feelings. But 
if her moral sense is sufficiently strong to prevent either of these, 
it then becomes a prolific source of disease. Its first effect is upon 
the nervous system, impairing its vital force ; thence to the serum 
of the blood poisoning it with moral evil ; finally to the crass- 
amentum, where it sets up an irritating action in some vital part, 
which, sooner or later ultimates in death. 

The law of reaction being equal to action, the wife receives 
from the husband in proportion to the strength of her attachment 
to him ; for, in this ratio she becomes the negative or receptive 
party. But the quality of the element imparted by the husband 
depends upon his condition, for he conveys to her the principles 
of his nature, which are the most active at the time the transfer is 
made. To repel her, therefore, in a fretful or angry mood is to 
convey to her an antagonistic element divested of the wisdom 
principle; and as this is the only principle which can affinitize with 
her love, no real spiritual congress of opposite principles takes 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 395 

place between them. This antagonistic element flowing in upon 
the conjugal plane is conveyed even to the spirit ; but as it cannot 
affinitize with the good, it conjoins itself to the evils of her nature; 
and as woman both fructifies and intensifies whatever she takes on, 
it becomes a far more potent means of disorder in her than it was 
in him ; for she even gestateshis latent evils and gives birth to them in 
an active form. Hence, so long as she is true to him she is a 
magnifying mirror, in which, if he will but critically observe, he can 
behold all of his imperfections. So thoroughly does every true 
woman reflect the character of her husband, that all his leading 
peculiarities may be accurately read through her by any one who 
understands the workings of this law, without ever coming in 
personal contact with him. Thus, it behooves every man to look 
well and see what elements he conveys to his wife, either by look, 
word or act, for he cannot expect to gather grapes of thorns or 
figs of thistles. If he sows the wind he must expect to reap the 
whirlwind. 

Tamar evidently understood the law here under consideration ; 
for, after having been ravished by her lecherous brother Amnon, out- 
rageous as this crime was, she exclaims, "this evil in sending me 
away is greater than the other that thou didst unto me."* Instead 
of his reacting from the passions to the moral sentiments and 
lamenting his wickedness, while, at the same time, he should have 
protected her, he indignantly ordered her to " arise and begone, " 
and commanded his servants to put her out and bolt the door after 
her. But Tamar, though the sin was not her\s u put ashes on her 
head, rent her garments and laid her hands on her head and went 
on crying." 

The consequences of this resistance varies in degree to the nega- 
tive condition of the wife at the time the repulse is made. Her 
extreme negative periods are during her menstrual flow, and in the 
act of coition. But in these two states the order of her negative- 
ness is completely reversed. During her catamenia she is negative 
upon the plane of the body ; but more than usually positive upon 
the plane of the mind ; whereas, in the act of voluntary coition, 
she is more negative upon the plane of the mind than the body. 
Almost every one has noticed the irritable state of woman on the 
approach, or at commencement of her menstrual flow. I mean that 
peculiar mental positiveness which usually expends itself in invec- 
* 2 Samuel, 13 : 16. 



396 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

tives against the husband or some other individual, and which, not 
unfrequently, rises to a tempest of words. 

The principles which produce this mental phenomenon, under 
the existing sinful order of things, is one of the chief safeguards 
in woman's constitution. Nor is it scarcely less beneficial to man, 
with whom she is conjoined. For every influx is from the positive 
to the negative, so that during her mentally negative period — that 
is during the period between her menstruations — she is receptive, 
to a greater or less degree, of the psychological conditions of all 
the masculine spheres with which she is sympathetically associated, 
and also of the physical conditions of her husband whose material 
forces she incorporates with her own. The male becomes compari- 
tively freed by this transference of his disorders to the female in 
virtue of her negative relation to him ; but having taken on these 
conditions, she instinctively becomes interiorly positive to their ac- 
tion upon her, and by this positiveness expels them from her 
through the most negative function of her system. Without this 
providential arrangement, neither sex could ever have become 
freed from the physical consequences of their evils. And as the 
physical is the basis from which the moral sentiments react, they 
are correlative ; so that the character of one is determined by that 
of the other. In this consists the all-important use of the men- 
strual flow. 

It will therefore be seen that the term " help meet " has a much 
more important signification attached to it than mankind have been 
accustomed to believe — it involves both physical and moral laws 
paramount to all others. Woman in consenting to the embrace of 
"man, takes upon herself all the conditions with which he approach- 
es her ; so that she becomes the receiving reservoir where he de- 
posits his inherited and acquired evils. By this arrangement the 
wife becomes the purifier of her husband, while she, in turn, has 
been provided with means by which she can convey it from her 
system. But her power to rid herself of its spiritual effects, de- 
pends chiefly upon her own condition ; for unless she keeps pure 
the inner temple of her own soul, and becomes able, through the 
influx of the divine sphere, to cast these evils into the circulatory 
system, and ultimate them through the menstrual flow, the most 
disastrous consequences will inevitably follow, for their accumula- 
tion and retention in the system, soon masters the strongest con- 
stitution, and she is left to drag out a short but wretched ex- 
istence. 






MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 397 

The moral and religious bearing of this function upon the sexes 
is evinced by the fact, that, at least in a very large majority of 
cases, (and I question if there be any exceptions,) it terminates 
the probationary period of religious proclivities. Its cessation 
somehow seems to effect a fixedness of religious condition with both 
husband and wife — it becomes the equinox in the life of the indi- 
vidual between heaven and hell. From this point the moral tem- 
perature steadily rises or falls until eclipsed by death. The out- 
ward acts may not so clearly indicate the change as the inner 
emotions. For several years I have sought in vain to find a woman 
w r ho has ever become especially interested in religious matters sub- 
sequent to the cessation of her menstrual flow, who had not pre- 
viously established a life of religious devotion. Neither have I 
found, thus far in my investigations, in a single instance, a man who 
sought or deemed it important to give up his carnal inclinations, or 
to take up the cross upon which to crucify the self-hood, who was 
not at the time connected with a menstrual woman. But, on the 
contrary, I have found many who have become confirmed infidels, 
atheists and pantheists ; many of them giving free expression to the 
vilest invectives against religion, the Lord, and the Christian 
Scriptures. 

There is another fundamental principle of the human constitu- 
tion and one closely allied to the subject under consideration, viz. : 
the highest enjoyments of which we are capable, are those which 
flow from the most immediate connection with the Lord. From 
Him alone cometh every good and perfect gift. The conjugal 
pleasures are ardent and delightful, or weak and insipid, in ratio as 
the parties are in divine order. The conjunction of the libertine 
and harlot, emasculated as they are by sin, is brief, and speedily 
reacts into disgust and contempt for each other ; while the hus- 
band and wife, who meet from a rational understanding of the 
object to be attained and under the sanction of the moral senti- 
ments, blend in conjugal love, happy in the society of each other 
and unitedly in God. The divine sphere descends through them 
— the good through the wife and the truth through the husband, 
and intensifies all their pleasures according to the degree of their 
love for each other, and union with the Lord. Amnon's enjoy- 
ment — if such it can be called — with his sister was less than that 
of the brute, because he was further removed from the divine 
sphere in consequence of the intense wickedness of this act. The 



398 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

war between his interior consciousness and the outward act, was 
too great to yield him even beastly satisfaction. 

The difference between conjugial delights and mere lustful grat- 
ifications, is the difference between sin and holiness, good and evil. 
The pleasures of scortatory love commence in the flesh, and con- 
vey their corruptions into the spirit ; while conjugial love com- 
mences in the spirit, and conveys its delights into the flesh, — thus 
the whole being united in a divine act. In the one case it is chaste 
and pure, in the other it is unchaste and impure even with the 
wife. Though the penal regulations of marriage may protect 
society, it cannot regulate the spiritual chastity of the parties. 
And it is here proper to remark, that as all real strength comes 
from the Divine whose sphere can unite only with purity, impo- 
tency is the legitimate result of unchastity ; whereas, potency is in 
consequence of the descent of the Divine into the conjugial or 
chaste principle, thence into the body. In the blissful associations 
of an orderly marriage, the will becomes potent in action ; the 
mind prolific of thought, the body energized in use, — each forever 
blessed with an ever-increasing strength and vigor. 

The third duty of husband and wife, the one of crowning im- 
portance, and from which all real happiness springs, is fidelity to 
each other. Without this there can be no real marriage ; and the 
legal tie becomes but an arbitrary bond, though a healthy restraint 
to their wandering desires. The symmetry of person, the grace 
of movement, the beauty of expression and the brilliancy of intel- 
lect, are but a mockery when associated with an unfaithful spouse 
— it only adds to the misery of the injured party to witness the 
degradation of these finer qualities. What untold misery is daily 
witnessed in the relation which a kind Providence has instituted to 
confer the greatest delights which human beings are capable of 
enjoying ; — reason perverted ; conscience misled ; character ruin- 
ed ; families broken up : hopes blasted ; wealth squandered and 
the bitterest animosities engendered. 

The forces generated between the sexes, and which, in their 
orderly condition, give rise to the highest mental and moral quali- 
ties, are in virtue of the affinity which two individuals have for each 
other, at the exclusion of every other purpose from the conjugial. 
plane. Other loves must be fraternal not conjugial. The mas- 
culine sphere thus uniting with the feminine, quickens her latent 
love into an intensity of action towards the person with whom she 
is in sympathy. The union of these forces establishes a new con- 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 399 

dition throughout her constitution. She becomes more ardent in 
her affections ; more intuitive in her perceptions ; more refined in 
her feelings ; more poetical in her thoughts ; and more graceful in 
her movements. On the other hand, the union of her sphere 
with his is no less salutary in its effect upon him. He becomes 
more energized in action ; more brilliant in thought ; more aspir- 
ing in ambition ; more dignified in expressions ; and more manly 
in his movements. The prolific principle in each, is quickened 
and rendered active by the union of their forces. Here the psycho- 
logical forces culminate and demand an ultimate expression in the 
organic constitution. 

The prolific principle contains every quality of the soul as well 
as the physical condition of the body. This the wife incorporates 
into her own constitution, so that the husband lives in and through 
the wife, as the Lord in and through the Church. By this means 
she becomes successively more and more a reflector of the husband 
— continually growing into a closer union of souls and conjunction 
of minds, until they ultimately become one. No real oneness can 
ever be effected except by successive copulations, but wholly un- 
mixed with other spheres. It is through this means that the virgin 
becomes a wife, and the youth a husband. Hence, what morally 
constitutes a wife in contradistinction to the maiden, is an impreg- 
nation, spiritually and physically, by the forces of the husband. 
This by no means necessarily implies a uterine conception ; 
but an absorption of his positive principles effected through her 
devotion to him, at the exclusion of every other person. It is 
only in this singleness of heart and purpose, that she really 
attains to the wifely condition. She cannot serve two masters. 
These forces, by their germinations, set up a new action 
throughout her being. The nature of their fruits will depend 
upon the quality of the seed and the soil in which it is planted. 
The more favorable the circumstances the more attractive she 
becomes ; so that her matron state is even more charming and 
beautiful than her maiden state. The accomplishments as rapidly 
improve in the one case as they diminish in the other. At middle 
age of life the contrast is so great that it never fails to attract the 
attention of the most casual observer. It is but proper to add 
that maidenhood beyond a certain period is a misfortune seriously 
to be deprecated. 

But there can be no impregnation of the spiritual principles of a 
wife who habitually holds herself positive to her husband. Mecep- 



400 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

tivity necessarily implies passivity. The woman who sets herself 
up as the lord of the house, deprives herself of all the finer graces 
of the feminine character. However refined the society in which 
she is accustomed to move ; and however well educated she may 
be, she can never hide the deformities of the unfeminine spirit 
within, nor ever attain to that natural grace and attractive ease 
which ever characterize a true woman, however limited her 
opportunities may be. These accomplishments belong to the spirit 
of the person rather than to any studied artifice, — they can be 
attained only through the wifely condition. 

When the wife commands, we cease to behold a respectable 
married pair ; we see a ridiculous tyrant and a still more ridiculous 
slave — a tyranny on the one hand, which arises from an unwar- 
rantable usurpation ; and a slavery on the other, springing from a 
meanness of spirit wholly incompatible with anything like manly 
qualities, and which inspires only contempt in the feminine 
usurper. It is vain to urge that she may be the most capable of 
authority, and that her orders may be conformable to wisdom and 
justice. Having no foundation in any true relation of the sexes, 
they are absurd from the very circumstance that they are orders. 
The virtues which the husband ought to practice towards his wife 
must have their origin in love, which can only be inspired, and 
which flees all restraint. An effeminate man may have a fraternal 
emotion or passionate impulse towards the woman who rules him, 
but he can never possess anything like a manly love and respect 
for her ; for these can never exist in a state of masculine subor- 
dination. However much a wife may humble her husband, in 
general estimation, by presenting him in the light of a weak and 
docile subject ; with all sensible persons, she humbles herself still 
more. If the slave is pitiable, the tyrant is contemptible. In a 
single position, the wife honors herself in assuming authority. It 
is when reverses have overwhelmed and desolated the husband, so 
that he ceases to sustain her and thus changing the marital order, she 
supports him. Grant that he receives hope as her gift ; grant that 
he is compelled to blush in imitating her example of courage ; she 
aspires to this power no longer than to be able to restore him to 
the place whence misery had cast him down. 

Adultery and its Consequences, 

In view of the foregoing considerations, it will be easy to com- 
prehend to some degree, the pernicious effects of Adultery upon 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 401 

the female constitution. This act properly signifies a mixture, and 
implies to corrupt or make impure by an admixture of base mate- 
rials. Marriage and Adultery are heterogeneous and adverse 
principles which can never coexist in the same individual ; whence 
our Lord justifies a divorce for this offence. 

Man, in virtue of a universal law of affinity, is continually in 
relation with spiritual forces corresponding to his own condition. 
He is receptive of these forces in the degree to his negative relation 
to them. By this means he becomes surcharged with whatever 
influence he is, for the time, connected. Whoever becomes nega- 
tive to him, in a like manner, partakes of the influences by which 
he is actuated, so that he becomes the medium for the transference 
and propagation of the forces with which he is connected. 

Adultery can be committed only during the suspension of the 
moral sentiments, thus leaving the individual in full connection 
with all the influences that are conjoined to the most lustful desires. 
This influence, being positive to his receptive state, impregnates 
every principle of his nature, and is transferred, spiritually, through 
the psychological forces, and physically through the seminal fluids. 
to the woman who receives his embrace. 

The seminal fluid is the product of the conjoint action of the 
soul and body, and partakes equally of the conditions of both, in 
order to convey existence to a new being. It is confluent, and the 
media of conjunction between Spirit and Matter. When trans- 
ferred from man to woman while the moral powers are enervated, 
as in the case of adultery, it becomes the means of conveying to 
her the moral and physical impurities of his system, divested of 
every divine quality. This is incorporated by absorption into her 
constitution, and becomes a positive force of moral disorder to both 
soul and body. The nature and office of woman is to fructify 
whatever she takes on through the conjugal plane, so that the evils 
that are comparatively latent or quiescent in man, become fruitful 
in her. Moreover, man's sphere is more positive than woman's, 
so that the elements transferred by him to her become a controlling 
force within her — a nucleus, to which is attached corresponding 
spiritual forces which open every avenue of her soul (for woman is 
receptive in every part of her nature,) as a highway upon which 
all Pandemonium finds an easy and ready ingress. Infestations in the 
spirit are the result of unlawful indulgence in the flesh. Heaven 
descends through the moral sentiments ; hell ascends through ^he 
lusts of the will. 



402 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Spirit and Matter are correlative principles — the former is posi- 
tive to the latter, and supplies the germs of every new entity 
which the latter nourishes into life and activity. In conformhy to 
this universal law, the foetal germ imparted by the male contains the 
soul of the future being, and is received by the female who sup- 
plies it with the negative or physical elements by which it is ma- 
tured into a conscious entity. The Germ becomes the attractive 
force which draws from the female organism such elements as can 
best affinitize with its own condition. But these elements partake 
of the spiritual quality of the mother, so that the future being is 
made up of the combined properties of the two — the father sup- 
plying the positive forces, and the mother the negative elements. 

By the act of adultery this positive force of the paramour, dives- 
ted of every moral quality, is incorporated into the constitution of 
the courtesan with that of the husband. One is in order, the other 
in disorder ; it therefore becomes morally impossible for the two 
souls to concordantly mingle upon the same plane. She will 
interiorly resist either one or the other ; but which of the two will 
chiefly depend upon the relative strength of her religious powers 
and harlot proclivities. If the meretricious tendencies of her nature 
predominate, she will resist the sphere of her husband as being in 
order, for which, being herself in disorder, she now has no affinity 
(for attraction is from like moral conditions) and cleave to illicit 
relations — the variety of which will depend more upon her dis- 
cretion than her morals. 

But if her religious nature is more active than her lust, her 
misdemeanor being more the result of a momentary excitement, 
or an overpowering psychological influence than any fixed determi- 
nation of a -vicious life, she will discard her criminal association and 
cleave to her husband. But, to use an artistic phrase, she has now 
formed two images upon the same plate adverse to each other ; one 
of which must be removed before she can again clearly reflect the 
image of her husband. She cannot enter heaven with these two 
conflicting images upon her soul ; for then, what is hid being 
revealed, these would proclaim her a harlot and deprive her of any 
association with the pure. Sin having neither the power nor dis- 
position to remedy itself, the Divine Artist alone can remove the 
impure image. Confessing and forsaking are the first conditions 
designated, thence ground upon the wheel of affliction and washed 
by the bitter tears of repentance is but the terrible experience of 
all who have ever been cleansed from this fearful contamination. 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 403 

Experience lias abundantly demonstrated that a few ounces of 
blood drawn from a man and injected into the arteries of a maiden, 
connects her with him in such a vital manner as to induce an attach- 
met that will not brook restraint. The attractive principle of the 
blood is weak in comparison to that contained in the seminal fluid. 
The former- is simply the crudest vital current of the physical 
structure, whereas the latter is the confluent, finest and purest 
properties of both soul and body. This fluid when transferred to 
the female combines with her own elements and sets up a new 
action throughout her being, morally and physically, and becomes 
a dynamic force that bids defiance to any mere human prudence — 
the quality of the fluid always determining the nature of its action 
upon her — for in obedience to a universal law, it begets its like. 
Divested of its moral properties, it perverts her perception, bewil- 
ders her judgment, corrupts her morals and brutalizes, rather 
demon izes, her life. 

These principles will account for the rapid decline of woman 
after she has once commenced her downward career, a phenome- 
non which has been observed in all ages and by all nations. Wo- 
men who have subjected themselves to the heterogeneous influences 
of men, adverse in temperament and disposition, and whose evils 
they have made their own by incorporating them into their consti- 
tution through a criminal commerce of the sexes, have seldom 
been found able or even disposed to reform their pernicious ways. 

We have been assured by one who knows, that " the pure in heart 
shall see God." Let us determine by what means this is effected. 
Love, as we have previously shown, is the esse of life ; hence, the most 
interior principle of the human constitution. In its purity it is a 
receptacle of the Lord, so that the two, — the human and the 
Divine, — in spirit and act, become one. This oneness which is 
an impregnation of the human love by the Divine Wisdom, so 
opens the interior perceptions, that the individual has a clear view 
of the Divine character. On the other hand, where this order is 
reversed and the evils of the female become impregnated by the 
lust of the male, as the will by the understanding, their united 
action forms a receptacle for demons, so that the Demon and Lust, 
instead of the Lord and Love, sustain a coopposite relation to 
each other. This relation, resulting from an impregnation of a 
depraved Will by an insane Understanding, so opens the spiritual 
plane, (not the interior of the spiritual or celestial principle,) that 
they see Lust as Virtue, Nature as Heaven, and Demons as Gods. 



404 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

The principles here set forth, furnish an explanation of the ill 
success of philanthropists in their laudable, but too often, misdirect- 
ed efforts for the reformation of meretricious women. The conflict- 
ing masculine forces shorn of every virtue, which they have incor- 
porated into their constitution, by these criminal relations, while 
prostituting the highest feminine principles to the meanest pur- 
poses, so open their interiors to the infestations of malignant 
spirits that they are held in spiritual, and oftentimes, physical vas- 
salage, until the moral perceptions become so distorted, that they 
interiorly approve of their miscreant conduct and lose all desire 
for a reformation. The terrible infestations and shameless .depravity 
of spiritual mediums are chiefly from this cause. 

It is, however, no unfrequent occurrence, for woman to yield 
to the overpowering influence of her seducer, upon whom she has 
previously bestowed her affections, while, at the same time, her 
sense of propriety and love of chastity keep up a certain interior re- 
sistance to the outward acts. In such a case she only yields her per- 
son, but holds her spirit positive to her seducer ; and as the negative is 
the only receptive state, she protects the interior conjugal principle 
from his contaminations. But she has now received a new and 
disintegrating force into her system, a force which continually 
seeks to wed itself to her loves, that it may bring them into a re- 
ciprocal action with itself and thus corrupt the inner as well as the 
outer life. For no sooner does she mentally approve of the act, 
than the soul becomes equally as contaminated as the body. 
Whatever evils are loved, adhere to the spirit, whether they are 
committed in act or thought. 

In order to remove this enormous evil from her, it becomes 
necessary to maintain a positive moral resistance to it ; at the same 
time, resolving from religious rather than prudential motives, never 
to repeat the act. By this means the soul becomes positive to the 
sin, and the Lord expels it from its unfortunate victim, by casting it 
down from the moral to the physical plane, and ultimating it through 
the menstrual flow. But no sooner does this flow cease, than these 
forces become pent up in her system, and speedily generate those 
forms of disease to which she is constitutionally predisposed. 
Hence those women who live in habitual violation of the laws of 
chastity, seldom if ever, long survive the turn of life ; in fact few 
ever reach so late a period. 

Deplorable as are the effects of adultery upon man, both philoso- 
phy and experience clearly demonstrate that its consequences are still 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 405 

worse upon woman whenever she becomes a willing participant to 
the act. For in this act she combines within herself the depraved 
conditions of all with whom she holds criminal commerce ; and 
what is still worse, each paramour conveys to her every sphere 
with which he has previously been connected, so that she becomes 
the cess-pool of the combined forces of their evils. " Know ye not 
that he which is joined to a harlot is one body ? for two saith he, 
shall be one flesh."* This is true in both a literal and a spiritual 
sense ; for moral diseases are no less infectious than physical. 
These mingling, as sin inevitably must, in antagonistic confusion 
upon the sensitive plane of life, with but feeble moral vitality to 
counteract their influence, have proved too demoralizing to be 
overcome by human efforts. Here is the origin of syphilitic 
diseases, springing from the rottenness of the soul in crime, and 
reacting upon man with terrific consequences. 

There are other reasons why this sin is greater in woman than 
in man. First: its liability of introducing an illegitimate member 
into the family circle, which must either be maintained by a man 
not its fatht-r, or cruelly driven from the household for a sin not 
its own. Moreover, if the knowledge of her guilt be kept from 
her husband, she is necessitated to live in the consciousness of a 
continual falsehood, both in reference to her infidelity and the tax 
daily laid upon him in the support of a spurious progeny. This 
deception, provided there is any moral sensibility remaining, is fear- 
fully disastrous to her physical and spiritual well being, The 
consciousness of her guilt combined with the internal physical 
forces now operating upon her, soon destroys her conjugal attach- 
ment, and not unfrequently engenders feelings and determinations 
towards her husband, akin to those of a demon. The most shame- 
less and inhuman conduct I have ever witnessed, has been by 
adulterous wives towards their husbands. The conjugial plane 
when inverted, is as potent for evil as it is in an orderly condition 
for good, so that the guilty wife not unfrequently becomes an 
incarnated devil, her perceptions discolored, her judgment bewil- 
dered, and her orderly life changed into fiendish hatred. 

But with man it is different. He may live in adulterous rela- 
tions, to a greater or less extent, all his life, and still maintain his 
marital attachment. Under such circumstances it cannot be ex- 
pected that there will be that oneness of soul essential to true con- 
jugal enjoyment ; but he will hold the wife in such respect and 

* 1 Cor. 6 : 16. 



406 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

esteem as will secure to her his favorable consideration and protec- 
tion. Not only so, he often turns with loathing and disgust from 
his mistress who degrades herself to administer to his lust, and for 
whom he can entertain no respect, with apparent renewed fondness 
for the wife who conjoins herself to him under the sanction of the 
moral sentiment. It is not pretended but that fidelity on the part 
of the husband would create a still deeper and stronger attachment 
for the wife ; but I am endeavoring here to show the different 
effect which the same act has upon the different sexes. Though 
the husband may allow a courtesan sphere to intercept between 
him and his wife, he does not incorporate into his constitution, as 
does the wife, the prolific forces by which an entire change is 
effected towards her. It is her nature to receive through the con- 
jugal relation and nourish the gift ; but it is his nature to impart 
and leave the result with her. She cannot nourish adverse condi- 
tions, though he may impart to adverse parties. Adverse elements 
w T ar in her, and through her upon him. 

Any change in the affections of the husband towards his wife, 
is not so much the result directly, of his infidelity, as the disturb- 
ance that usually grows out of the wife's suspicion or knowledge 
of his guilt. Being unable to patiently endure this perfidious con- 
duct, she wages war with the treacherous and lustful influence 
acting upon him, and at the same time, holds herself interiorly 
positive to him. He, in the meantime, feels this positiveness, but 
having no rational understanding of its nature or use, and as man 
is seldom attracted to a positive woman, it adds an additional in- 
ducement for him to seek negative associations. If he could com- 
prehend the fact that it is the nature of every true wife — and it 
is one of heaven's best gifts to her — to resist every vicious sphere 
with which her husband has become conjoined, her faithfulness to 
his real interest in repelling those evils, would become an object of 
attraction rather than of repulsion to him. 

Many cases have come to my knowledge of the infidelity of the 
husband which, in consequence of the wife remaining ignorant of 
his guilt, apparently produced no social disturbance in the family 
relation. But this by no means lessened the real misfortunes. 
The husband, living in continual deception towards his wife and a 
frequent violation of his marital obligations, becomes confirmed in 
evil and ripened for the pit. And the wife, in the meantime, hav- 
ing no perception of his conduct, can understandingly offer no 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 407 

resistance to him, and so becomes passive to and receptive of all 
the evils with which he approaches her. 

The mischievous effects of such conduct is soon apparent. The 
evils of the husband, especially under such circumstances, are sure 
to find some ultimate expression through the wife. The form they 
assume in her will depend upon the peculiarities of her mental and 
physical temperament. With some the mental and moral powers 
become dismembered by the divorcing elements brought to bear 
upon them ; with' others the organic functions set up a diseased 
action from the ultimate effects of the disorganizing influence of a 
moral poison. Sin is everywhere disintegrating, and it commences 
its work of destruction on every plane of life, however and wher- 
ever it may find access to the human constitution. Its first ingress 
is through the emotions, and once having found access to the indi- 
vidual, it will pass from one to another, like an infectious disease, 
according to the degree of their susceptibility to the same evil, until 
it affects the whole household or community. Paroxysms of 
laughter by witnessing it in others, without knowing the cause of 
mirth, is a phenomenon frequently observed and governed by the 
same law. Violent fits of anger will run from one to another, 
especially among those who habituate themselves to this vice, in 
the same way. 

The sin of adultery, having once gained access to the mind of 
the husband through inordinate desires, flows from him to the 
wife while fiducially reposing in his integrity, where it shapes 
itself according to her condition. Her powers become unstrung 
and thrown into a helpless and hapless confusion. She grows more 
and more dissatisfied, peevish, and censorious, without the clearness 
of perception to enable her to divine the nature of the influence acting 
upon her. Woman is impulsive; so that the evils of her husband 
when transferred to her system, become a magnifying lens through 
which she sees every object by which she is surrounded. The 
most trifling circumstances assume a magnitude they do not pos- 
sess ; and she construes every imaginary neglect into a wanton 
disregard of her sufferings, and every fancied wrong into a crim- 
inal design upon her happiness. Sooner or later the organic 
structure is compromised in the evil ; the nervous system becomes 
enfeebled ; the stomach dyspeptic ; the bowels deranged ; the 
mucus and glandular secretions out of order ; the menstrual flow 
too frequent and profuse, or painful and irregular ; and thus suffer- 



408 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

ing a daily martyrdom, she hurls back upon her husband the con- 
sequences of his own wrong, or sinks beneath their weight. 

We should here keep in view the universal law of cause and 
effect ; for what is true on the material plane, the plane of effects, 
is also true on the spiritual, the plane of causes. It is well known 
that in the outer life, the wife receptively conjoins herself to her 
husband, fructifies and brings into life the fruits of his fecundation. 
She also conjoins herself to his spiritual state by which she becomes 
the reactive principle of his interior condition. She being the 
fructifying and ultimating party, all his perverted loves, however 
well concealed from outward observation, have a constant tendency 
to manifest themselves through her as the ultimating party ; and 
this in exact ratio as she fills the negative or real w 7 ifely relation. 

There are innumerable instances where it becomes an imperative 
necessity on the part of the wife to hold herself positive to the 
sphere of her husband as her only means of self-protection. And 
I have been much surprised in several instances at woman's remark- 
able sagacity in this particular ; not unfrequently interiorly resisting 
her husband without intellectuallv understanding the cause for so 
doing. It is evident that the Creator has provided her, to a large 
extent at least, with the means of self-protection so long as she remains 
herself chaste in thought and act. Nevertheless, nothing is more 
common than for an affectionate and over-credulous wife, w 7 hose 
perceptions are naturally obtuse, to droop and languish for years, 
living, as it were, on the verge of the grave, in consequence of a 
misplaced confidence in the chastity of her husband. But as soon 
as the conviction of his infidelity is forced upon her, though she 
may still continue to occupy his bed, and faithfully discharge all 
the outward relations of a wife, but at the same time keeping her- 
self interiorly positive to his sphere, she speedily reacts into a degree 
of health she had never expected to enjoy nor could have attained 
by any other means. 

In view of these facts, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that 
the Creator has so arranged the constitution of man that every 
wrong carries with it its own penalty. Connecting as the wrong 
does with the primeval source of all evil, it cannot be otherwise, for 
by the influent force through this connection, is perpetuated the 
same disintegrating influence under which the act was performed. 
Neither is it possible for man, of himself, ever to break this con- 
nection. He alone who shutteth and no man openeth, can close 
the flood gates of perdition. Confessing and forsaking on the one 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 409 

hand, and earnest supplication on the other, by which we become 
conjoined to the Lord, are the only means of salvation from an 
association with the damned. 

The Creator has so arranged the constitution of man that he 
cannot inflict an injury to another, without at the same time, in- 
flicting a still greater one upon himself. In the act of adultery 
man conveys the most potent and positive force of his constitution, 
divested of every moral quality, to woman, whose depravities 
rather than her virtues, become impregnated by it. Though the 
woman, when a willing actor in this moral drama, is equally guilty 
with the man, it does not lessen the turpitude of his guilt, nor its 
terrific consequences upon him. It is a subversion of the divine 
order within him, which renders his moral sentiments subordinate 
to his sensual impulses, so that he, in his turn, becomes no less re- 
ceptive of spiritual spheres corresponding to his own depravity, 
than is she of his. 

This sphere of lust prompts him to seek still other victims to 
gratify his now more urgent demands; thus alternating between 
satiated appetites and such fury of passion as will not brook re- 
straint. Living in the aura of the pit, and inhaling its most subtle 
virus, it establishes a mental plane of sophistry rather than philos- 
ophy, and he reasons himself into the conclusion that the Creator 
never implanted in man such earnest demands for variety without 
supplying the means and approving of their gratification ; or, that 
Nature, of which man forms a part, is God, and that " every im- 
pulse is a command of the god within, which should be obeyed." 

The conjugal principle is formed from the marriage of goodness 
and truth. These give birth to divine Love on the one hand, as 
the feminine principle ; and to divine Faith on the other, as the 
masculine. Faith and Love are correlative principles, so that it is 
impossible for one to exist without the other. The union of these 
forms the reservoir of the Christian Religion. Hence, to destroy 
the Love principle, is to destroy the negative or reactive principle 
of Faith. And in the complete destruction of these, man is not a 
whit more receptive of the Christian religion than the brute, for 
he has no conditions into which it can flow. It is therefore, but a 
legitimate and an inevitable consequence, that those who are addict- 
ed to this vice, should, whenever they express the real condition of 
their state, deny the divinity and efficacy of the Christian religion, 



410 THE CONSTITUTION OE MAN. 

and turn to self instead of the neighbor, and to Nature instead of 
God. 

It is well known that persons living in promiscuous concubinage 
are never religious ; for religion as inevitably roots out this condition 
of life as the snow melts before the summer heat. The very first 
steps toward religion, whenever they ultimately become religious, 
has invariably been repentance and reformation in this enormous 
sin, — a sin that strikes its deadly fangs to the inmost citadel of all 
divine life, and festers the most loathsome diseases. Such persons 
can never teach their children religion by precept or example ; 
hence they are left to grow upas representatives of the depraved 
conditions of their progenitors. But to refrain from a licentious 
course of life merely from worldly considerations, such as the fear 
of loss of reputation or condign punishment, and not from a prin- 
ciple of religion, is still to spiritually love an impure life. Real 
chastity is founded upon a love of obedience to divine requirements. 
It is the fear of the Lord rather than a fear of the loss of reputa- 
tion, that is the beginning of wisdom. It has been unwisely sup- 
posed that the consequences of illicit relations ended with the 
criminality of the act. No mistake can be greater. This relation 
may well be denominated Satan's depot of exchange where each 
soul becomes freighted with new elements of destruction. Here 
the commerce of psychological spheres is far more complete than in 
any other relation of life — a commerce which more fully involves 
the whole being and corrupts the inner sanctuary of the soul than 
any other, one that re-produces its conditions in every other depart- 
ment of the moral constitution. Every act an individual performs 
conjoins him more and more fully with either heaven or hell. It 
is impossible to serve two masters at the same time. 

There is another principle connected with this subject important 
to be understood, viz. : Divine and lustful elements can never 
mingle, for they are antagonistic to each other. When man and 
woman come together, it is always by an expressed or an implied 
contract. If both are upon the same plane and they meet for the 
same object — whether it be divine or lustful — there is a mutual 
exchange of conditions upon that plane. If they are in order they 
become a mutual benefit to each other ; but if both are in disorder, 
a mutual injury. If one is actuated by love and the other by lust the 
harmony is broken, but the contract still remains in full force, and 
the lustful party receives no elements only such as can affinitize 
with this condition ; consequently becomes absorbent of the worst 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 411 

elements of the other, unmingled with any of the Letter qualities ; 
for the good, finding no resting place, like Noah's dove, returns to 
the ark from whence it issued. But, on the other hand, so far as the 
opposite party is under a divine influence they are not only shielded 
from the influence of the other, but become an attractive force to 
take up their remaining good, which is added to the divine stock 
already possessed. Moral qualities unite from an inherent cohesive 
force emanating directly from the Deity ; whereas evil, being a dis- 
integrating principle, never coheres, but associates in an antago- 
nistic relation. It is in the proper understanding of this law that 
we learn the full significance of the statement of our Lord, that 
u unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abun- 
dance : but from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that 
which he hath."* 

The amalgamation of the black and white races in the slave 
states offers a striking illustration of this principle. The slaves 
being the innocent and at the same time the injured party, are made 
receptive of the better qualities of their masters, by which means 
they have been much improved in their moral and intellectual con- 
dition ; and this in the ratio of their amalgamation. The house 
servants and mistresses far surpass, in every social and intellectual 
quality, the herds of field hands. And, morally, their sexual 
impurity could scarcely be said to reach the spirit to contaminate it, 
for they were not the voluntary agents of their own actions, but 
were held in servile subordination to their masters. Their industry 
and enterprise, when allowed to operate for their own advantage, is 
immeasurably enhanced over that of the denizens of their native 
country. On the other hand, the whites become enervated in all 
those qualities of which the blacks are receptive from them. In 
their enterprise, and their moral and intellectual attainments, as a 
people, they have shown themselves to be extremely feeble, both 
in comparison to the rest of the nation and with the enlightened 
portions of Europe. There is no way of accounting for these facts, 
other than upon the law of equilibrium, or the affinity of corres- 
ponding qualities. Every grade of society furnishes such ample 
demonstrations of the principles here set forth, that it is easy to 
point out, by their looks, the peculiarity of their movements and 
conversation, the class of persons with which any individual has 
been accustomed to associate, 

* Matthew 25 : 29. 



412 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

The law here set forth is of such vital importance, that it will 
be deemed no unwarrantable tax upon the patience of the reader, if 
an attempt is made to more fully enforce it upon his attention, by 
an illustration directly in point. A man endowed with a strong 
affectional nature, moving in the higher circles, married a girl from 
the lower ranks of society, possessing considerable talent and average 
accomplishments ; but of feeble moral powers. Love on his 
part, and worldly ambition on hers, were the actuating motives 
which brought them into this alliance. They lived together for a 
time without discord, during which period he never lost sight of her 
best interest nor intermitted in desire or effort to promote her hap- 
piness. He constantly went out to her in all of the better elements 
of his nature ; but she was in possession of no interior conditions 
which could appropriate these qualities, and they returned to him 
ladened with what little good she possessed. But the evils of his 
nature, of which he was trying to rid himself, found their affinity 
with her and cleaved to her as the leprosy of Naaman unto Ge- 
hazi. Having thus deceitfully bartered for worldly aggrandize- 
ment what little womanly qualities she possessed, she became di- 
vested of every moral principle, and at the end of two years went 
out, the scape-goat, from her husband covered with the leprosy of 
sin, from which she never recovered. He, on the other hand, was 
strengthened i n the right, surrendered himself to Divine dictation 
and became a Christian man, while she rapidly sank until she be- 
came an outcast from society. 

From this example and the law here set forth, it will be seen 
that the Creator, with infinite wisdom, has so arranged the laws of 
human association, that mankind are obliged to redeem their 
pledges, for by withholding upon the lower plane they are 
made to yield up their goods from the higher. From this rule of 
action there is no escape. Spiritually, therefore, " There is that 
scattereth, and yet increaseth ; and there is that withholdeth more 
than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." * 

In the days of the Patriarchs and Prophets, such as were in 
divine order, subjected their passions to the control of their intel- 
lect and moral sentiments ; women were neither actuated by, nor 
called upon to submit to, mere lust, but had in view a holy and 
divine purpose, the only condition in which the purity and nobility 
of the sexes can be preserved. When Lot had fled from Sodom 
to Zoar accompanied by his daughters, they made their father to 

* Prov. 11 : 24-. 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 413 

drink wine and went in and lay with him that. they might preserve 
seed to their father.* So also when Sarai found herself to be 
unfruitful, as " the Lord had restrained her from bearing," she 
besouoht her husband Abram to go in unto her maid Hagar, that 
she mio-ht obtain children by her.f After Marv had listened to 
the explanation of the astonishing salutation of the angel Gabriel, she 
exclaimed, " Behold the handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto me 
according to thy word. "J 

On the other hand the severest judgments are pronounced against 
adulterers and whoremongers. u Let her, therefore, put away 
her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between 
her breasts ; lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that 
she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry 
land, and slay her with thirst. And I will not have mercy upon 
her children ; for they be the children of whoredoms. "§ Under 
the Mosaic law both the adulterer and adulteress were put to 
death. || u Be not deceived ; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor 
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, norrevilers,nor extortion- 
ers, shall inherit the kingdom of God."^[ " But whoremongers and 
adulterers God will judge."** These examples are sufficient to 
show that we are allowed to exercise the conjugal principle of our 
nature only for ends of use ; and that any merely sensual and pro- 
miscuous indulgence brings the offender under the judgments of 
God. 

But I would here caution the reader against the opposite ex- 
treme ; for some women from want of attachment to their husbands 
have persuaded themselves that copulative association should be 
permitted only for the purpose of offspring. In this opinion I can 
not concur, nor do I believe it to be one which any well balanced 
and virtuous mind can ever entertain. It evidently grows out of 
some personal dislike to the husband, rather than any high-toned 
chastity. More probably the result of some infidelity on the part 
of either the husband or wife, or both, that has introduced an in- 
sulating sphere between them, and intercepted the flow of conju- 
gial attachment, if any ever existed. To assume that this func- 
tion has reference only to the procreation of the species, is to ex- 
pose our utter ignorance of the true relation of the sexes. There 
is a procreation of ambition, thought and aspiration, which are as 

* Gen. 19. t Gen. 16. J Luke 1 : 38. § Hosea 11 : 2-4. ||Lev, 20 : 10, 
T 1 Cor. 6 : 9, 10. ** Heb. 13 : 4. 



414 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

much dependent upon the reciprocal action of the sexes, as that of 
the procreation of their species, — there is absolutely nothing per- 
taining to the higher order of life which characterizes man above 

C3 » ft 

the brute, that does not derive its stimulus, its incentive to effort, 
from this relation. It is folly to argue that the brutes, the repre- 
sentatives of an unperverted nature, have no cohabitations only to 
re-produce their species. Their state or condition is a fixed one, 
they have no latent forces from which higher qualities can be re- 
produced or brought into an active form. But with man it is different. 
He is immediately conjoined to his God. and it is his privilege to 
continuallv grow into a higher and still higher condition, to receive 
and impart through the conjugal relation, such forces as are con- 
tinually germinating and fructifying into more divine qualities. 
But who ever conceived of men and women developing into a 
higher order of moral and intellectual life, while insulated from 
each other ? Just the reverse is the case — they rapidly degener- 
ate towards the condition of the brute, in exact ratio as they cease 
to exert a reciprocal influence. Nor can it be otherwise, for wo- 
man is preeminently the receptacle of Divine Love as man is of 
Divine Wisdom, and it is only in their copulative association that 
they become procreative of every divine quality. 

In woman, the cessation of the prolific principle takes place at 
the middle age of life ; whereas, in man, it continues to extreme 
old age, unless weakened in youth or destroyed by inordinate in- 
dulgences. Hence, at the cessation of this function in the wife, it 
scarcely more than reaches its full potency in the husband. And 
as use characterizes all the works of the Creator, this difference 
has some w T ise purpose. It is not presumable that he is to seek 
illicit intercourse, nor that this force is to be dammed up within 
him, while in the very vigor of manhood. Though it may have 
performed its use in giving existence to other beings while the par- 
ties were in the vigor of life, it now has a more interior and spirit- 
ual work to accomplish. It opens the inner planes of the mind, 
so that they become receptacles of Goodness and Truth, in the de- 
gree in which they live for ends of use. 

The parties have now reached a period of life where the love of 
the sex in general, and which was essential in early life, in order 
for a proper selection, merges into an exclusive love of the consort. 
On the physical plane, by the generation of offspring, provided 
they have remained true to each other, they have already become 
united to the fullest extent, for by impregnation every physical 



. MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 415 

condition of the husband is incorporated into the constitution of 
the wife, being first imparted to the embryo, thence to the mother. 

Wisdom and conjugial love, like Goodness and Truth in religion, 
are inseparable companions. The husband now grows wise in the 
degree in which he religiously conjoins himself to his wife, and the 
love of this wisdom is transferred through the seminal fluids to the 
wife, so that she becomes the love of his wisdom, that it may not 
destroy him through self-love ; and he, at the same time, becomes 
receptive of her love according to the degree of his wisdom. 
Through this reciprocal action, an action which can fully take place 
only through the transfer of the Prolific Element, they become more 
and more interiorly united to each other, and by this interior union 
they become receptacles of the divine Good and Truth which 
unites them to the Lord. Moreover, it is by means of this trans- 
fer, that she becomes a wife, and what she receives psychologically 
and physiologically from the husband, she fructifies and gives back 
in a spiritual form. She imparts the principle of Love, and this 
becomes Wisdom in the husband ; and the wisdom of the husband 
becomes Inspiration in the wife ; it is a continual action and re- 
action ; wherefore, he becomes a man in the ratio as she becomes 
a woman, and vice versa. Not only so, the Prolific principle can 
never reach its legitimate and ultimate expression, only through the 
wife ; for, what is true on the physical plane, is equally true on the 
spiritual. It is by virtue of this element that the female is changed 
from a maiden to a wife, so that literally her womanhood, both 
physically and spiritually " is bone of his bone and flesh of his 
flesh," for this is taken out of man, for which reason they should 
cohere as one. 

All the womanly energies of her nature now become impreg- 
nated by a new dynamic force incorporated into her constitution. 
The image of her husband borne through the prolific principle is 
now daguerreotyped upon the inner tablets of her soul — thus 
wedded in spirit and body. And as the united sphere of the Sun 
and the Earth produce light and heat, which blended and cooperate 
in fructifying nature in her every department and causing her to 
bring forth a prolific harvest of beauty and use ; so, in a corre- 
sponding manner, the husband and wife unite their conjugial 
spheres, not only for the perfection of each other, but to people the 
heavens with angelic beings, at the same time, adorning them with 
every moral and intellectual beauty. How superlatively grand and 
sublime their mission ! For what a noble end their union ! God 



416 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

and man uniting in the same beneficent work ! Who then dares to 
prostitute it to the peopling of the hells with miscreants of dark- 
ness and misery ? whose unceasing anathemas against heaven and 
their progenitors, shall cause them to endure an endless night of 
pain to be succeeded by no morn of repose. How wonderfully we 
are made and what fearful responsibilities are laid upon us poor sin 
bewildered mortals ! 

In order to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife 
and every woman her own husband,* is a divine command ; and 
they twain shall be one fiesh.f Nowhere in the Scriptures do we 
find any sanction to the idea that the w r ife has a right to withhold 
from her husband the conjugal privileges ; but the inference is that 
these rights are innate in this relation and that they should " come 
together "J in order to suppress any wandering desires. " The wife 
hath not power of her own body, but the husband and likewise also 
the husband hath not power of his own body, but the w r ife."§ 
Dr. Adam Clarke makes the following comments on this passage : 
" Her person belongs to her husband ; her husband's person 
belongs to her : neither of them has any authority to refuse what 
the other has a matrimonial right to demand. The woman that 
would act so is either a knave or a fool. It would be trifling to 
attribute her conduct to other cause than weakness or folly. She 
does not love her husband : or she loves some one else better than 
her husband : or she makes pretensions to fancied sanctity unsup- 
ported by Scripture or common sense." 

But to me it is clearly evident that the apostle intended to 
convey the philosophical truth that neither the husband nor the 
wife possesses the ability, in propria persona, to protect themselves 
in the conjugial department of their constitution, but were mutually 
dependent upon each other: for he immediately adds, — "Defraud 
ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye 
may give yourselves to fasting and prayer ; and come together 
again, that Satan tempt you not from your ineontinency ;" showing 
that he regarded them, while so separated, as unduly exposed to 
the temptations of Satan, who might take advantage of their 
abstinence to induce them to seek illicit commerce. But if they 
withhold the marital rights u with consent for a time" the act 
becomes an agreement protected by the moral influence of the 
conscience. 
*1 Cor. 7:2. t Matt. 9:5. J 1 Cor. 7 : 5. § 1 Cor. 7 : 4. 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 417 

In further elucidation of this subject it m?y be well here to add, 
that the peculiar characteristics and the highest qualities of man- 
hood depend upon the strength and 'purity of the confluent forces of 
the prolific principle. It is this that causes him to differ, physically 
and morally, from woman and renders him positive to her. So 
lono- as he retains it within his own person — provided he does not 
go out in lustful desires — it becomes his protection against the 
spheres of meretricious women. True it is a force attractive to the 
female and in turn is attracted by her ; but in every morally 
healthy condition, it being subordinate to the higher faculties, it is 
directed only to the wife. She intercepts the attractive sphere of 
all others and thereby becomes his shield of protection against the 
onslaughts of every disintegrating influence. And, so long as she 
holds her emotional nature in subordination to her moral senti- 
ments, enlightened by an nnperverted reason, he, in turn, — if he 
keeps himself pure, — becomes the insulator between her and all 
libidinous spheres. Thus the circle of attractive forces springing 
from the cooperation of the positive and negative action is complete 
within themselves, and neither man nor devils can break it without 
the consent of one of the parties. 

Notwithstanding the prolific principle stimulates man to seek 
female association, it at the same time maintains him in a positive 
relation to her, so that there is an exchange of the active and pas- 
sive forces in the degree in which they are drawn to each other — 
she growing more negative in the ratio as he grows more posi- 
tive. But if from a personal dislike, or a sense of wrong, she feels 
to resist him, she rises into her will force where she becomes more 
positive than man, so that she subdues all desire towards her, 
except in those persons who are destitute of all the higher qualities 
of manhood. In legal jurisprudence it has long been an established 
principle, that an acquiescence on the part of the woman is essen- 
tial to conception ; and the courts have refused to convict on the 
charge of a rape when fruitfulness was the result of the coition. 
This regulation is well founded, for it is impossible for woman to 
conceive while holding herself in a positive condition to man. A 
mere transference of the spermatozoa cannot produce conception 
without a conscious or unconscious acquiescence on the part of the 
female. I say unconscious because it is a well established fact that 
fruitful intercourse may take place when the female is in a state of 
narcotism, of somnambulism, or even of profound ordinary sleep. 



418 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

The real commerce of the sexes consists in their mutually coming 
together under the sanction of the moral sentiments and for ends of 
use, which use is not simply the creation cf a new being, important 
as this is, but that they may more perfectly blend with each other 
for mutual advantage. In proportion as the human being makes 
the temporary gratification of the mere sexual appetite his chief 
object, and overlooks the happiness arising from spiritual commun- 
ion, which is not only purer but more permanent, and of which a 
renewal may be anticipated in another world, — does he degrade 
himself to the level of the brutes that perish. Yet how lamentably 
frequent is this degradation. In every such relation the animal 
instincts alone have any participation, so that it becomes an 
exchange only of the sensual qualities divested of the spiritual 
forces ; and these generate moral disorders, which destroy all the 
finer sensibilities by corrupting the springs of life, from which flow 
every stream of real happiness. 

No rational woman ever feels disposed to withhold from her 
husband the conjugal rights so long as she has any degree of attach- 
ment to him and her marital bed remains undefiled. Whenever 
the wife becomes alienated from her husband without a series of 
conscious wrongs on his part, she offers incontestable evidence of 
her own perfidy and a strong presumptive evidence of her want of 
chastity. In every such case the husband may reasonably question 
the fidelity of his wife ; and has a moral right to institute such 
means and inquiries as may lead to the detection of her guilt ; for 
every pure w r ife as instinctively clings to her husband as the true 
christian to his God. 

One of this class, who had played false to her marital relation, 
remarked to me : " I married my husband because I loved him, 
and no man can treat a wife with greater kindness than he has ever 
treated me, and aside from my feelings, there is no one I more 
respect ; but I have no words to express the hatred in which I 
hold him as a husband." This woman had for several years been 
living the life of a harlot, and the disorderly spheres she had taken 
on through her criminal commerce, had not only intercepted that 
of her husband, but had at the same time so disordered her conjugal 
plane, that hatred had taken the place of her nuptial affection. 

It may be regarded as a grand fundamental truth, that every 
chaste wife loves her husband, even though he be unchaste. Her 
chastity, if it springs from a divine fountain within her, (and there 
is no other real chastity) continually goes out to her husband, for 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 419 

there is no other to whom it can become attached. The moment 
she transfers her chaste affections to another, it becomes unchaste ; 
and she a spiritual harlot, even though she maintains chastity in 
her outward life. Oneness of thought and feeling, except for 
moral reasons, is the only test of her integrity. Hence for a 
woman to confess her hatred for her husband, is to confess her own 
infidelity even in reference to her chastity. 

In both sexes the interior qualities of their love are in exact keep- 
ing with their interior state ; for, a man cannot possess a love ad- 
verse to his own condition. Conjugial love, which is a love of one 
of the sex, springs from a Christian principle, which is formed by 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and obedience to his command- 
ments. This faith and obedience forms the condition of a union 
or oneness between the individual and the Lord, from whom alone 
the conjugial principle is derived. It is impossible for only such 
to enjoy the felicities of a divine marriage. The Creator never 
designed that man should enter into the enjoyment of this love, 
until he first became married to him ; otherwise, he would be per- 
mitted to return to Paradise in his sins, which would destroy all 
conditions of happiness by transplanting scortatory love into the 
Paradisiacal kingdom. But by first becoming married to the 
Lord, the interior of the mind and thence the body is opened, 
whence there exists a free passage from first principles to last for 
the stream of love ; on the flow, sufficiency, and virtue of which 
conjugial love depends. 

But to reverse the order, and carry illicit loves, which have their 
origin in the flesh, into the spirit, is to flood the spiritual nature of 
man with lust, by which " the kingdom of heaven is destroyed 
within him." As in one case, the Lord flows from the most interior 
planes of the spirit into the ultimate planes of the body ; so in the 
other, evil flows from the ultimate planes of the body, into the 
most interior planes of the spirit, by which means the heavens are 
transformed into hell. The latter, is the condition of every unre- 
generated person. The very nature of lust when satiated, is to be 
repelled by its consort. There being no conjunctive principle be- 
tween them on the plane of the spirit, as soon as the stimulus of 
the flesh is exhausted the attractive force is destroyed, and on their 
interior planes they mutually repel each other. So far as this 
takes place, they conjoin themselves through their scortatory loves 
to others, whereby they renewedly surcharge themselves with mere- 
tricious spheres, by which they again become lustfully attracted to 



420 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

each other, or to any one who can best administer to their wants. 

It has been previously shown that the seminal fluid is the river 
of life flowing between the soul and the body, receiving its tribu- 
taries alike from both. Matter and spirit, like the soul and body, 
are everywhere inseparably connected and constitute a dynamic 
and static relation — a faculty and capacity, which in virtue of a 
universal law of positive and negative action, continually germinate 
a prolific principle. Nor is it possible for man to so condition matter 
as to totally destroy this tendency. This is the attractive principle 
between the sexes, whether between man and woman, or in any 
other department of universal existence, and constitutes the con- 
junctive medium between the Creator and his creation. It is 
through the prolific principle alone that the Creative force descends 
into tike ultimate planes of life in order to effect successive creations. 

Man is the only being that has the power to subvert its action ; 
and this he possesses in virtue of his moral constitution by w r hich 
he can conjoin himself to either good or evil. And as every influx 
assumes the form of the receptacle, as water of the pitcher, so he 
shapes this influx to his own condition. A perverted will is always 
the correlative of a subverted understanding. Hence the will 
determines the condition of the reproductive principle. The 
strength and gravity of this principle is the strength and gravity 
of the man. Nor can he ever rise higher, physically or spiritually, 
than the moral condition of this principle of his constitution. Its 
immaculate purity alone freights the Divine spirit. From its golden 
cups are sipped the nectar of life. These cups are formed by the 
union of goodness and truth, and are kept in the inner sanctuary 
where the High Priest of the soul alone is allowed to enter. To dese- 
crate these by converting them into receptacles of the evil and false, 
is to destroy the body and ruin the soul. The same hour in which 
Belshazzar prostituted the vessels of the Lord's house,* to drink 
from them w r ine with u his princes, his wives, and his concubines 
to the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and 
of stone," the handwriting was seen upon the wall announcing 
that he had been weighed in a balance and found wanting. " Know 
ye not that ye are the temples of God and that the spirit of God 
dwelleth in you ? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall 
God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."f 

Everywhere in these pages I have shown that there is a dual or 
bi-sexual sphere perpetually proceeding from the Creator into 
* Daniel 7. 1 1 Corinthians, 3 : 16, 17. 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 421 

universal nature by which successive orders of creation are effected. 
It is impossible to conceive of any existence that is not mediumis- 
tically instrumental in the ultimation of this dualistic force. The 
ether which fills the apparent void of space, the gases which 
compose the atmosphere, all organic and inorganic substances, and 
the fluid which flows amid their particles, everywhere contain a 
positive and a negative phase of action in virtue of a universal 
sexual influx. Ex-nihilo nihil fit. Nothing comes from nothing. 
This universal tendency to coition of all mind and matter I believe 
can never find any other explanation than that here set forth. 
Hence, marriage, whether we consider it as an institution or as a 
principle in nature from which the institution is derived, is the 
most intimately allied to the Creative sphere. Nay, it is the only 
direct medium of conjunction between God and his works. Search 
creation from its centre to its circumference and no other avenue of 
immediate influx can ever be found. Wherefore, to corrupt the 
conjugal principle is to contaminate the reservoir from which every 
human blessing is derived. 

But the plane of moral accountability is the only plane of its in- 
version. In inanimate substances, and among the lower order of 
sentient beings, these having neither intellect to devise nor moral 
sense to control their actions, have nothing to reproduce but their 
instinctive life — physical qualities being all they are capable of either 
enjoying or imparting to their offsprings. Their seed contains the 
germ of qualities like themselves, which they can neither improve 
nor impair only in reference to mere organic life. But with man 
it is different. While possessing instincts in common with the 
brute, he has at the same time been endowed with intellect and 
moral sentiments, which render him an accountable being ; so that 
he stands at the head of creation. The Greek proverb, Corruptio 
optimi pessima — " the corruption of the best, becomes the worst," 
is here most literally true. With these higher gifts, no creature 
can fall so low as man. The action of his superior endowments, 
when perverted, carry him far beneath the brute. Every moral 
disorder, as well as every high toned virtue, is begotten alone 
through the begetting principle. There is no other primeval gen- 
erative force connected with his human constitution. This is the 
tree of knowledge of good and evil of which if a man unlawfully 
eats he will surely die. Moral death is here inevitable to the 
transgressor, and which finally ultimates in death temporal and 
eternal. Here stands the fabled Charon, the son of Erebus and 



422 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Nox, to ferry the souls of the dead across the river Acheron to 
Hell, that there, like Tantalus, they may be placed in a lake of 
water which recedes whenever they attempt to drink, and over- 
hung with delicious fruits which elude their grasp. 

Every wanton finds this no chimera, but the terrible reality of 
their own experience in every lascivious act. Unsatiated, though 
glutted with lecherous desires, they seek for still other gratifica- 
tions which vanish in obtaining, or recede when they attempt to 
drink. Still maddened for pleasures which their wickedness has 
deprived them of the ability to enjoy, they turn with loathing 
from each other to their own sex and become the voluntary actors 
of the debasing crime of Sodomy as the last degree of human de- 
pravity. Now, stripped of all moral integrity, and every principle 
which binds them to their Creator, festering corruption, and sub- 
verting every divine order, they for a while linger upon earth as 
incarnate representatives of the damned. 

It will require no further argument to show that the primeval 
introduction of evil upon our earth was through re-productive prin- 
ciples. It was morally impossible for man to sin in any other 
department of his nature so long as this principle remained uncon- 
taminated. The subtle influence represented by the serpent, being 
aware of this, made his first attack, then, as now, upon the only 
available point, one which equally involved both man and woman. 
He knew that inasmuch as God had so constituted the relation 
of husband and wife that they became a protection to each other in 
their social capacity, the first sin must find its way into the world 
by the mutual consent of the representatives of mankind. They 
therefore took on the conditions of sin unitedly, and after it was 
once incorporated into their constitutions they could individually 
give it such expression as their inclinations might indicate. 

The first temptation was to Eve, not so much as the weaker 
vessel, but as the receptive party and the representative of human 
impulses. While under the fascinations of the charmer, all flushed 
with passionate beauty, yet as uncontaminated as the lily that bears 
its petals upon the placid bosom of the lake, her breath redolent 
with divine love by a daily communion with God, every .movement 
and attitude possessing that peculiar characteristic of the beguiling 
principle, she approached her husband, folded him in her arms, 
and alas, though he knew her condition — for he was not deceived 
— he reciprocated her embrace, and moral evil became established 
on earth. Had he at that moment resisted her and held her at 



MAKRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 423 

bay, he would have conquered the demon that possessed her and 
maintained his integrity to God. But she clung around his neck 
with all the fascinations of beauty, when at once it captivates the 
senses and spell-binds the reason. Though we may regret, let us 
not censure until we are able to resist so great a temptation. 
Together they fell, and together man and woman must rise. This 
sin corrupted the re-productive principle and through it was trans- 
mitted to their posterity. Our fathers have sinned and are not 
and we have borne their iniquities.* 

Up to this time they lived more in their spiritual than in their 
external nature ; for there were no insulators between the interior 
and exterior life ; and while dwelling upon earth they freely com- 
muned with Heaven. But sin, flowing in upon the intermediate 
plane, divorced the two natures, and they were driven from the 
garden, wherein was the tree of life, or from their spiritual nature 
into the external, now infested with evil represented by thorns and 
thistles ; and henceforth they were to eat bread or spiritual food, 
only by the sweat of their brow in combat with sin. 

I do not pretend to say that this was really a literal occurrence. 
The language is evidently correspondential ; but it clearly describes 
the fall of man. By garden, we are to understand a state of inno- 
cence ; by woman, the love or emotional principle ; by man, the 
wisdom or rational principle : and by the serpent, the ultimate or 
sensual principle. The natural delights pertaining to the sexes 
being the most subtle of any of the beasts of the field, or sensual 
principle, entices the affections, and the affections the understanding. 
This is the order of the temptation with every individual. We 
may also understand that by the seed of the serpent, all infi- 
delity ; by the seed of the woman, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ ; 
by He, the Lord himself ; by the head of the serpent, the dominion 
of evil in general, and specifically of self-love ; by to tread upon, 
depression, so that he should go upon his belli/ and eat dust; and by 
the heel, the lowest natural, as the corporeal which the serpent 
should bruise. But it is not my design to here treat of the law of 
correspondences in which the Scriptures are written ; but to show 
the debasing effects of adultery, — the tap-root of all human 
depravity. 

There is no other primeval ingress for evil than the sexual prin- 
ciple. Here is where the Adversary of all human interest must 
first make his grand onslaught against humanity. And if success- 
* Lam. 5 : 7. 



424 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

ful here, he opens up a highway for the ingress of universal dis- 
order. " The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against 
the flesh ; and these are contrary the one to the other ; so that ye 
cannot do the things that ye would. * * * Now the works of 
the flesh are manifest ; which are these ; Adultery, fornication, un- 
cleanness, laseiviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, em- 
ulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murder, drunk- 
enness, revilings and such like." * This catalogue of evils com- 
mences with adultery, which paves the way for all the rest. Is it 
strange then that " familiar spirits " should make such strenuous 
efforts through their mediums, to break down the barriers to this 
vice ? that they should ignore the sanctity of marriage and plead 
in behalf of the promiscuous commerce of the sexes ? Is it strange 
that libertines and courtesans, having no purity of heart, cannot 
see God, and look backwards and downwards to nature ? Is it 
strange that they should follow after seducing spirits, rather than 
the Lord, and give heed to doctrines of devils rather than to the 
Holy Word ? We cannot " gather grapes of thorns or figs of 
thistles." 

I have already extended this chapter far beyond the limits first 
assigned to it ; but the principles which it involves are paramount 
to all others — principles which lie at the foundation of all social 
happiness and national prosperity. Nevertheless, none are more 
imperfectly understood, nor has any subject ever been more unwisely 
handled, except by a few who have founded their opinions upon 
the Divine precepts. But even they have in no way appeared to 
comprehend the great fact that these precepts were not given as 
mere arbitrary injunctions ; but as the ultimate expression of infi- 
nite principles. In an age like this, the nature of a law must first 
be understood before it can secure respect. It is folly to urge upon 
the skeptic, who has no reverence for nor belief in the sanctity of 
the Christian Scriptures, obedience to their precepts, until he is 
first made to see that these precepts are founded upon principles 
inherent in the constitution of man, for his obedience must first be 
prompted by an innate love of self-preservation. It is the fear of 
the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom. Corrupted, debased, 
and blinded by sin, this age is one that questions all things, and 
demands such proof as appeals to its outer rather than to its inner 
senses. Rash and headlong in its genius it chafes under what it is 
pleased to call Traditional Theology, and has more confidence and 
* Gal. 5 : 17-21. 



MARRIAGE AS AN INSTITUTION. 425 

interest in its physical senses than in its inspirations ; — in the nat- 
ural than in the spiritual. 

We are living in an age when, to a greater or less degree, the 
sanctity of marriage is practically ignored throughout the world, 
and theoretically so by a large and rapidly increasing class of 
society. Millions within our own nation believe there is no moral 
distinction to be made between marriage and adultery — that lust 
rather than conjugiality is the implanted law. Out of this sophis- 
try has grown a general mixing of all the heterogeneous elements 
of human depravity. These have generated the most loathsome 
moral conditions and given birth to diseases which have eaten out 
the lives of tens of thousands, while, at the same time, in a large 
majority of cases, it has rendered the relation of husband and wife 
one of discord and misery, rather than harmony and happiness. 

The cause of these multiplied evils is not understood. The 
sexes, ignorant of the nature of their relation and of the potent in- 
fluence they exert upon each other, have failed to discover the 
origin of the suffering they are compelled to endure, or to under- 
stand why they should refrain from coveting things forbidden. A 
simple prohibition, though it comes from God, is not sufficient to 
satisfy the irreligious mind. There is a demand to know upon 
what principle this prohibition is founded and what relation it holds 
to the welfare of the individual. It cannot be taken on trust 
where there is no faith. 

In penning this essay the main object has been to awaken public 
attention to the importance of a proper relation of the sexes, by 
designating the influence they exert upon each other, physically 
and spiritually, under different relations of life ; showing, on the 
one hand, that while the relation of husband and wife, orderly 
maintained, is indispensable to the perfection of each other ; on the 
other, that libidinous associations are equally destructive to the wel- 
fare of both. 

I am not aware that the fundamental principles which underlie 
this effort have ever been embodied in any previous work. I think 
I may justly claim priority in their discovery. This discovery was 
brought about by a remarkable combination of providential circum- 
stances, all of which seemed to conspire to this end. 



CHAPTER IX 



DIVORCE. 



After treating of the subject of marriage, both in its nature and 
constitution, it now remains to consider the question of its dissolu- 
tion by divorce. The present moral and social condition of our 
country, makes this a subject of peculiar and special interest. As 
there are obvious fundamental principles and occult forces connect- 
ed with marriage, which lie at the foundation of human happiness, 
it becomes important to learn under what conditions it should be 
perpetuated, and how far any interruption of this relation affects 
society, and also the consequences upon the parties more immedi- 
ately concerned. 

" There is no question," says Bishop, " upon which a greater 
diversity of sentiment has prevailed in different ages, and among 
different nations and individuals of civilized men, nor upon which 
there is at present a greater diversity of opinion, than whether, and 
for what causes, a marriage originally valid, may properly be dis- 
solved. The two extremes of opinion are, that which regards mar- 
riage as a mere temporary partnership, which either party may 
abandon at pleasure ; and that which holds it indissoluble for any 
cause, by any earthly power. The former has prevailed among 
not only savage and barbarous people, but in different ages it has 
received the countenance of the polished and refined.* The latter 
has found favor only in modern times, as a religious refinement, 
unknown to the primitive church. The medium ground is, that 
which allows the marriage to be dissolved for grave causes, con- 
sistent with the public interest and morals, and the rights of child- 

* " It has received the countenance of the polished and refined " only in the 
most worldly and depraved sense, and among those people who have discarded the 
religious principle and degenerated into the most corrupt morals. And it is a re- 
markable fact, that in exact proportion as any people have weakened their moral 
perceptions, they have given countenance to divorce. 



DIVORCE. 427 

ren ; but writers who assume this ground, are not agreed concern- 
ing those causes. 

" The early law of Rome, like its history, is involved in 
obscurity ; but it is generally understood that the law of the twelve 
tables allowed considerable latitude of divorce ; yet that so great 
was the purity of public morals, and so strong the general senti- 
ment against the dissolution of marriage, that no instance of 
divorce occurred during the first five hundred years of Roman his- 
tory. The first Roman divorce is said to have been that of Spu- 
rius Carvilius Ruga, who, A. W. C. 523, B. C. 231, repudiated 
his wife whom he much loved, solely on account of her barrenness, 
being impelled by an oath the censors had obliged him to take, that 
he would give children to the republic. But be this as it may, 
divorces became afterwards very common at Rome, and they were 
allowed pretty much at the pleasure of either of the parties."* 

In the history of Rome we have an example of the power of 
public sentiment in holding vice in check, even while vicious laws 
stood unrepealed upon their statutes. Custom was more powerful 
than penal regulations. But when this custom was once broken 
over, it became the presage of the downfall of that once glorious 
republic. Had Ruga and his coadjutors been actuated by a moral 
reason rather than political policy, no such results could have 
followed ; for every moral act is but an ultimate expression of 
a divine principle and carries with it a salutary rather than a mis- 
chievous influence. 

Between Ruga and his wife there was a strong reciprocal attach- 
ment ; nor was she charged with any misdemeanor, but only 
barrenness. This was her misfortune, not guilt. The putting 
away, therefore, was in consideration of worldly policy rather than 
for the maintenance of justice. In this the Creator could have no 
cooperation, so that it opened the gateway for the ingress of a 
moral disorder which swept over the entire republic. The nation 
approved of the act and partook of its consequences ; for to com- 
promise with evil is to share its penalty. Xapoleon repeated the 
experiment, but with no better success. His motive was to secure 
to himself an heir to whom he might bequeath his crown, not so 
much to bless his empire as to perpetuate his name — a purely 
individual and selfish motive. Ruga, on the contrary, was over- 
persuaded to sacrifice his personal interest and yield to the wrong 
by the censors to whose care was committed the virtue of the 

*Marriage and Divorce, pp. 207, 208. 



428 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

nation. He was the agent more than the exciting cause of the 
evil ; but had he stood immutably fixed upon the divine precepts 
he would have become the bulwark against its ingress. Napoleon 
ruined himself; Ruga, the republic. 

In the life of every individual and nation there comes a time, 
connected with such circumstances, as compels a decision between 
the right and the wrong. This decision is the crisis which deter- 
mines their future destiny. From that moment they become 
conjoined either to that influence which will bless in reference to the 
highest interest, or to that which will scatter the good and inaug- 
urate a reign of misery. The consequences, though not at once 
apparent, continue to increase until they bring forth their ultimate 
fruit. Like the seed that is first planted in the ground, there is no 
apparent change, but the new forces by which it is surrounded 
produces their gradual though imperceptible work. The final 
contrast is between the planting and reaping. 

Rome, through her censors, who stood as the representatives of 
her public virtue, in compelling Ruga to put away a wife whom he 
loved and whose fidelity was not brought in question, substituted a 
lower for a higher principle by sacrificing the right to a mere 
worldly expediency ; and from that moment she may dale the 
commencement of her decline. Unparalleled prosperity crowned 
her five hundred years of virtue. From it sprang architectural 
beauty, the symmetry and grandeur of which has never been 
equalled ; and their legislative halls resounded with wisdom which 
has added new beauty and power to the world of mind to the present 
day. She yet stands upon the pages of history as the once beautiful 
and lofty queen of all ages and nations. Palestine was nurtured 
upon her bosom, and her virgin daughter gave birth to the Lord. 
What was Rome but her high toned chastity ? In it, she was 
mighty ; without, she fell. And her history is the history of all. 

Belshazzar, in a like manner, prostituted holy things to profane 
purposes ; and the same night the hand inscribed " tekel " upon 
his palace walls — he himself was slain and his kingdom given to 
another. This Scripture lesson was designed to illustrate the prin- 
ciple under consideration ; and in this instance the cause and effect 
are brought into such close proximity as to enforce its teachings 
upon the human understanding. The United States made a com- 
pact to hunt down every fugitive from an unjust bondage and 
return him bound to his master. There was no justice in this 
compact to either party. Expediency growing out of the most 



DIVOKCE. 429 

extreme selfishness was the actuating motive, at the same time 
affirming that " there is no higher law." Every enlightened 
christian knew that a nation could not stand upon such a platform, 
for its elements were disintegrating and not cohesive ; and in the 
general commotion which followed, slavery was sifted from the 
nation. Like Rome and Napoleon, the unjust means employed to 
accomplish their ends were providentially used to effect their defeat. 

These examples, selected from an innumerable number, are suf- 
ficient to illustrate the principle of justice here under considera- 
tion ; and which, however far removed from an immediate con- 
junction with the creative sphere, can never be infringed with im- 
punity. But the conjugal principle, being the immediate recepta- 
cle of the divine influx, and hence of conjunction with heaven, is 
the most potent and sacred force connected with the human con- 
stitution ; so that any infringement of its sanctity is sure, in a still 
more special and direct manner, to bring the most fearful disasters 
upon the offender. Consequently no severing of the marital tie, 
without a just provocation, can ever secure happiness or prosperity 
to the individual wantonly seeking it ; for, by wickedly divorcing 
the conjugal relation, we expel the divine sphere by contaminating 
the conjunctive medium, and thus, at the same time, divorce our- 
selves from God, which leaves us exposed to the ingress of every 
moral disorder. Those who have critically remarked the disasters 
which usually follow this offence against chastity, will need no ad- 
ditional proof of the truth of this position. 

We often meet with arguments, that easy divorce laws do not tend 
to the frequent interruption of the marital tie ; arguments based upon 
the fact that Rome for jive hundred years had no divorces though her 
laws allowed them. But the real facts are, that though for five 
centuries no advantage was taken of those laws, they ultimately 
became the means of introducing an element into that republic, 
which effected its overthrow. During this period, public opinion 
continued to be more than paramount to penal regulations. But 
no sooner had Ruga set the example than others followed, and 
these frequent occurrences soon changed the whole public sentiment 
in reference to marriage ; and it being the inevitable tendency of 
sin to bewilder the judgment, one vice after another crept in, until 
the cohesive force of families was destroyed ; and as the family is 
the nursery ot the nation, there were no healthy plants to take the 
places of those which death removed from the stage of action. 



430 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

The argument to be drawn from this history derives its chief 
strength from the vicious example rather than from the penal regu- 
lation. But the penal regulation permitted the vicious example. 
Hence, in order for the proper protection of society it becomes 
necessary to arbitrarily restrain those who will not voluntarily sub- 
mit to a moral code. A ferocious beast, caged, can do but little 
harm. But the difficulty lies in framing a code of laws which will 
not be too stringent for the exigency of some, and too lenient for 
the evils of others. It is folly to talk of sacrificing individual 
interest to the public good ; they are never antagonistic ; for no 
real prosperity is ever based upon injustice. The good of society 
depends upon the real welfare of its individual members ; and it has 
no right to demand of them any sacrifice in its own behalf; but is 
in duty bound to exercise the greatest charity towards them. Only 
thus can it imitate the Creator. If it be urged that it is necessary 
to deprive the thief of his liberty and the murderer of his life, I 
reply that by so doing society does them no injustice ; but, on the 
contrary, confers the greatest blessing upon them ; for as temporal 
ambition should be subordinate to spiritual interest, personal liberty 
and an extension of life, are the greatest misfortune to a man when 
he uses them in a manner to most effectually injure his eternal 
welfare. 

As late as 1810, there were but few divorces in this country, and 
the ignominy attached to them was such as to expel the offending 
party from circles of respectable association. But now the most 
trifling offense, and that too more frequently on the part of the ap- 
plicant, is considered a sufficient cause for the dissolution of the 
marital ties. The unwarrantable flirtations and libidinous associa- 
tions which are too frequently carried on between men and wo- 
men, totally disqualifies them for the maintenance of any thing like 
an orderly conjugal relation. They exchange magnetic spheres 
springing from lustful proclivities, which act as a potent stimulant 
upon each other, creating new desires which give birth to impure 
meditations. The law of social exchange not being understood, 
they may, at the time, have but little or no apprehension of the mis- 
chief that is going on. But soon they find themselves influenced 
by emotions which become clamorous for an expression in some 
new order of things. These emotions not having originated in 
conjunction with the sphere of the consort, can never be grati- 
fied in that relation, but seek to respond to the sphere that gave 
them birth. The caprice of the passions provokes a looking and 



DIVORCE. 431 

lusting which constitute the first principles of adultery, by freight- 
ing elements, which when conjoined to the other party, give birth to 
this crime : and adultery being directly opposed to the conjugal 
sphere, never fails to divorce the inner principles of nuptial har- 
mony, even though the outward relation may be perpetuated. In 
this, way, husband and wife become disjoined; first in the feelings, 
thence in thought and ultimately in life. 

In view of these considerations, the benevolence and wisdom of 
the Author of Christianity are eminently conspicuous in the laws 
which he has enacted on this branch of morals ; for, while he author- 
izes marriage, he restrains the vagrancy and caprice of the passions 
by forbidding polygamy and divorce ; and well knowing that the of- 
fence against the laws of chastity usually spring from an ill-regulat- 
ed imagination, he inculcated purity of heart, by requiring an ab- 
stinence from lustful desires. 

As the most luxuriant fruit springs from the richest soil, so the 
highest principles are grafted upon the stock of the strongest 
instincts. In the human constitution, these instincts are the mate- 
rial basis from which the spiritual forces react ; so that the most 
interior conditions are wedded to the most sensual impulses ; and 
as reaction is equal to action, the spiritual state is in perfect keeping 
with the sensual life. Nor is it fit that these instincts should be 
destroyed, but only subdued and brought into harmony with the 
dictates of true wisdom ; for, the more potent are their impulses 
the more intense are the spiritual forces which spring from them. 
If this soil brings forth a bountiful crop of thorns and thistles, it 
only needs the disciplining influence of the Divine Husbandman to 
induce it to yield a no less luxuriant harvest of grapes, figs and 
pomegranates. Moreover, whatever moral conditions are finally 
established in this probationary life, become fixed forever ; for, at 
the dissolution of the bod}^, there is no longer any ultimate mate- 
rial plane from which the spiritual forces can react into a higher 
morality. Then it is, " He that is filthy let him be filthy still." 

From these considerations it will be seen that the command- 
ments were given, not as mere arbitrary enactments, but to instruct 
man in reference to his highest interest. And he who surrounds 
himself by them, rests secure within the walls* of " the holy city, 
New- Jerusalem which came down from God out of heaven." 

* The letter of the Word constitutes the wall : and the incorporating it into the life 
encloses the individual within it. An understanding of and an obedience to the 
spiritual sense of the Word will initiate us into the temple of the Holy City, for 
the Lord God Omnipotent and the Lamb is the temple thereof. 



432 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

" But without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and 
murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." 
Here is the dividing line between him that is righteous and him that 
is unjust. M Blessed are they that do his commandments, that 
they may have right to the tree of lite, and may enter in through 
the gates into the city." But it is morally impossible for a man to 
avail himself of this blessing so long as he is in a condition to do 
violence to his conjugal principle ; for however orderly his life may 
be in all other respects, he lacks the elements which constitute the 
bride within himself to which the Lamb* can become wedded ; 
and without these nuptials, he has no companionship with the 
Lord, and clearly belongs to that class who are without the enclo- 
sure of the New Jerusalem. 

Probably no age has ever witnessed a more unsettled state of 
public opinion upon the subject of marriage, than the present. We 
are living in that period of time when the culminating forces of 
disintegration are testing the permanency of every long established 
institution, and the correctness of every cherished opinion. What- 
ever there is that is false in theory or evil in life, attracts these 
forces to themselves, until they become so manifestly conspicuous 
as to clearly reveal their own deformity. The pendulum of human 
thought, while uninstructed by divine wisdom, ever tends to ex- 
tremes ; at one time crucifying the body to save the soul, at another 
damning the soul to gratify the body. The Hindoo and the atheist, 
though widely differing in mode of expression, alike display the 
characteristics of the merely natural man, and are types of the ex- 
tremes of human folly. The impulses of the human will were de- 
signed to be the hand-maid of a divinely illuminated understand- 
ing — ever prompting to action, but ever submissive to wisdom. 
The understanding without the passions, would have no ultimate 
plane of operation ; the passions without the understanding, would 
have no directing force. These, like husband and wife, (for their 
harmonious action constitutes the marriage of the individual) are 
reciprocally dependent upon each other ; one requiring divine illu- 
mination, the other intense, but subordinate action. 

Grievous as the errors are pertaining to marriage and divorce, 
they are not all upon one side. The opinion, on the one hand, 
that the marital relation contains no more sanctity than character- 
izes other social compacts, and should be absolved at the option of 
either party who may cherish a stronger affinity for another ; and 
* Kev. 19 : 7. 



DIVORCE. 433 

that on the other, which refuses a divorce for any cause what- 
ever, are equally unsustained by either Scripture or reason. The 
former practically abrogate the marriage institution, and would 
destroy all distinction between vice and virtue ; for it is useless to 
talk of chastity when men and women transfer themselves from 
one to another as often as the caprice of the passions may suggest ; 
and the other would hold the parties in conjunction with each other 
until the end of life, though every principle of the conjugal rela- 
tion is set at defiance from the day the nuptials were consummated ; 
in which case the parties being deprived of the blessings of the 
marital rights, are forced by the laws of their being to seek else- 
where that enjoyment and use in association which the affections 
demand. But there being no outward restraints to hold them in 
conjunction with their new association, they soon run into the same 
immorality as the advocates of the broadest liberty of divorce. 
Now there is a rational and a medium ground between these two 
extremes. 

This contract is entered into with a definite understanding which 
the usages of society for ages have made specific. The ceremony of 
marriage is strictly a civil regulation, simply legalizing the selection 
the parties have made. This civil regulation cannot go beyond the 
implied agreement of the parties to the contract ; and has a 
perfect right, so far as it is capable of doing, to hold them to its 
faithful fulfillment. But as it cannot restrain the vagrancy of one, 
it has no moral right to make a victim of the other. The innocent 
party usually has enough to endure without any unjust infliction 
from the civil code. It would be both as expedient and just to hold 
the Siamese twins together, while one is dead and the other alive, as 
to compel a man to remain the husband of a woman who persis- 
tently refuses to remain his wife ; or vice versa. As the law cannot 
force a cohabitation on the part of one, it should not attempt it 
upon the part of the other. And as a non-compliance with the 
marital rights formed no part of the contract, it is broken in every 
moral sense, whenever these rights are maliciously withheld ; and 
any legal restraint put upon the liberties of the other, further than 
requiring a public nullification of the marriage tie in any judicious 
manner the law may dictate, is without a moral basis and is noth- 
ing less than a wicked persecution. 

The social demands of our nature springing from moral and phys- 
ical conditions, which the Creator has implanted in the human 
constitution, are the usual stimulus to marriage. This cooperative 



434 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

tendency of the sexes, cannot be regarded as a simple passion or 
emotion, since it is the result of the combined operations of the 
reason, the imagination, and the moral feelings ; and it is in the 
ingraftment (so to speak) of the physical and spiritual attach- 
ment, upon the more corporeal instincts, that a difference exists be- 
tween the sexual relations of man and those of the lower animals. 
Every principle, therefore, pertaining to man, is involved in this 
relation. There is no higher ambition than that springing from the 
conjugal aspirations ; nor greater ultimate pleasure, than its sen- 
sual delights. And so deeply are these ingrafted into the human 
constitution, that they can never be infringed with impunity, nor 
long suppressed without serious disaster to the individual. The 
state, therefore, has no right to deprive any one of its members, 
guilty of no crime, of the highest blessings and deepest.enjoyment 
which the Author of his existence has beneficently conferred upon 
him. 

In cases literally innumerable, the physical needs are such, that 
the loss of health, and ultimately of life, are the results of a contin- 
ued restraint upon the sexual instincts. Men and women endowed 
with strong emotions, however well-disciplined in a moral and re- 
ligious life, constantly generate a force which seeks its kindred 
element ; but which, when unduly restrained, becomes a source of 
disease which extends itself into every department of the moral 
and physical constitution. * 

" We cannot Nature by our wishes rule, 
Nor at our will, her warm emotions cool." 

True, this secretion, like all others, being largely under the influ- 
ence of the mental emotions, may, by suspending the conjugal de- 
sires, be greatly, if not entirely checked in its accumulation ; but 
in the ratio in which this is effected, those glands which are the 
negative poles of this force and which characterize the distinction of 
sex, become impaired ; and this being the central force of the sys- 
tem, it graduates every other mental, moral, and physical condi- 
tion, to its enfeebled action. The contrast at mature age, between 

* " With some men," says Swedenborg, " the love of the sex cannot, without 
hurt, be totally checked from going forth into fornication. It is needless to recount 
the mischiefs which may be caused and produced by too great a check of the love 
of the sex, with such persons as labor under a superabundant venereal heat ; from 
this source are to be traced the origin of certain diseases of the body, and dis- 
tempers of the mind, not to mention unknown evils, which are not to be named ; 
it is otherwise with those whose love of the sex is so scanty that they can resist 
the sallies of its lust," — Conjugal Love, p. 450. 



DIVORCE. 435 

the married, and virtuous unmarried, has its basis in the law here 
set forth, and has been remarked by all. 

But even this change, unfortunate as it is, cannot be suddenly 
accomplished. It requires months, and more frequently years, to 
discipline the feelings into an acquiescence to this new order of 
things. The old loves still thrust forward their demands ; but 
which must now be turned back to do their work of death in 
every part. I am not unmindful of the fact, that the formation of 
the seminal secretion in large quantities, is a serious tax upon the 
corporeal powers, and that the highest degree of bodily vigor is 
inconsistent with more than a very moderate indulgence in sexual 
intercourse. But it is no less true that any accustomed secretion, 
however morbid it may be, cannot be suddenly suppressed with 
impunity. I am not, therefore, pleading the necessity of an over- 
indulgence ; but endeavoring to show that when such has become 
a habit, (and which is usually the case with married persons,) it 
requires a considerable length of time to reestablish a healthy con- 
dition. The seminal fluid having once become congested in its 
ultimate receptacles, whether by habit or wanton contemplations, 
it can have but an orderly expression ; and if forced back upon 
the system, it acts as a foreign substance, which imposes the task 
of its removal upon some vicarious function ; but as this is a 
higher force than is peculiar to any of the excretory organs, it sets 
up an over-action by its undue stimulus upon them, inducing not 
unfrequently fatal results. 

Satan uses the highest principles to accomplish the worst ends. 
Nor is there much trouble to find those who are willing to work his 
designs. Nothing is more common than for the wife, for some 
real or fancied cause, to deny to her husband the marital rights. 
In a large majority of cases this refusal is the result of her own 
undue familiarity with others, which has introduced an intercepting 
sphere between her and her husband, so that he becomes repug- 
nant to her, which feeling she improves every opportunity of 
expressing, at the same time repelling every advance he makes 
towards her. His patience finally becomes exhausted, his passions 
ungratified, and his love unreciprocated. In this dilemma he seeks 
elsewhere for that love and gratification which is denied him at 
home. Being aware that the desire of association is but a natural 
and laudable instinct, she is led to believe that by withholding the 
marital rights, he will be constrained to keep the company of some one 
upon whom she may be able to fasten a reasonable suspicion of guilt, 



436 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

by which she may at once disgrace him, excite sympathy in her 
own behalf, and at the same time secure her own release from the 
marital tie she has so basely dishonored. Such stratagems being 
of frequent occurrence, it is but proper here to add, that any penal 
regulation which renders assistance to a wife for any alleged crim- 
inality on the part of the husband, subsequent to her refusing to 
discharge her connubial obligations, has no basis in equity ; but 
holds out an inducement to a wicked violation of her marriage con- 
tract. If she appeals to the law for a redress of grievances, she 
should be permitted to do so only with clean hands, and not 
allowed to make her wicked stratagem both the means- of her own 
release, and at the same time of disgracing him she has foully 
wronged. 

The Creator has never delegated to one individual the right to 
defraud another of any of the blessings which have their basis in 
the legitimate desires of the human constitution. Now one of the 
chief uses of marriage is to restrain every wandering and unholy 
desire, while, at the same time, it affords ample scope for the proper 
exercise of the social instincts under the jurisdiction of the moral 
sentiments, that the individual may bring into harmony all the 
combined forces of his being. To this end, both are religiously 
bound to cooperate ; nor has the wife any just cause of complaint, 
so long as she refuses to discharge her connubial obligations, if her 
husband seeks and obtains what she maliciously refuses to grant. 
Moreover, the law of compensation being governed by the con- 
dition of the individual, we can receive from the Divine only what 
we are willing to impart ; thus rendering it impossible to withhold 
what is justly due another ; without, at the same time, being 
deprived of the spiritual forces which properly belong to that 
department of the constitution. So that with what measure we 
mete to others, is meted to us in return. 

But it is proper here to add, that, on the other hand, it is a 
heinous offense against chastity for the husband to maintain copu- 
lative association with the wife so long as he is commercing with a 
concubine ; for this, being contrary to religion, destroys the conjugal 
principles, closes heaven to him, and causes him to turn from God 
to nature, which, favoring his lust, he worships as a deity, from 
whose influx his spirit thenceforward receives animation. He now 
no longer acknowledges the Lord only as a natural man and the 
son of Mary, and without any special divine qualities, having no 
preeminence over other men ; for adulterous practices destroy the 



DIVORCE. 437 

perception of divine things, so that a lecherous people are always 
an infidel people — infidelity being the legitimate reaction of lust. 
The state of a man's conjugal principles therefore is the state of his 
religious life. The wife of a man, provided she was not first in 
fault, is perfectly justifiable, nay more, is morally bound to refuse 
actual connection with him as the only means of protecting her 
own chastity from the contagion of the lustful sphere adhering to 
him from his courtesan. 

The wifely condition is created by the incorporation of the 
masculine forces into the feminine constitution, and the husbandly 
condition by the reflex action of these forces from the wife ; and 
she becomes more and more a w T ife, and he more and more a 
husband, in the ratio of their assimilation. This is what constitutes 
the difference between the maid and the matron, the youth and the 
husband. But it is a law of universal creation that the quality of 
any entity is but the ultimate condition of the elements of which 
it is composed. Pure water, for example, is the union of two 
simple elements, viz., oxygen and hydrogen, its quality depending 
upon the freedom of those constituent parts from every foreign 
substance ; but the greater the mixture the more opaque and con- 
taminated it becomes, until it ceases to possess any cleansing pro- 
perties. Precisely such is the case in reference to husband and 
wife. For however pure a man may be, he can never become per- 
fected as a husband so long as he is conjoined to a harlot, even 
though she be his wife, and he, at the same time, religiously 
restrains himself from every other association ; for she, possessing 
no real wifely qualities, can impart nothing to him but a disinte- 
grating force, which consumes rather than develops his manhood. 
So, likewise, the woman, though chaste herself, can never come into 
possession of the real wifely qualities by incorporating into her own 
person masculine elements that are mixed with meretricious spheres. 

It is a law as universal as mind and matter, that marriage is the 
result of the tendency of two dissimilar, but proximate principles, 
to unite in copulative association in order to effect new entities or 
conditions, — use being the end kept in view : and as conjugal love 
is derived only from the influx of good and truth from the Creator, 
the first essential principle of which is to bless its object, real mar- 
riage cannot exist a day longer than the parties seek to promote 
the interest of each other ; for there can be no conjugial relation 
between good and evil, truth and falsity. These may consociate, 
but cannot marry, for marriage implies a union of action, and not 



438 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

an antagonistic relation. Truth is the . product of the virgin soil 
of goodness ; but the proper cultivation of that soil depends upon 
wisdom. As the soil is the first fundamental principle of vegeta- 
tion, so love is the esse of all wisdom. Wisdom exists alone from 
love ; and love is disciplined alone by wisdom. It is action and 
reaction, here as elsewhere in creation. Hence, the love in the 
wife ever seeks to overcome the evils in the husband as the only 
means by which it can ever become married to wisdom ; and the 
wisdom in the husband ever seeks to chasten the love of the wife as 
the only means by which it can exist and reproduce itself. 

The love which the wife has for her husband, enters into his 
wisdom and illuminates his understanding ; and the wisdom of the 
husband enters into the love of the wife, and renders it prolific in 
uses. He becomes wise in the application of means to ends, and 
energized in the right. She becomes fruitful in the tropical plants 
of faith and righteousness, the blending perfume of which ascends 
to heaven. Can men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? 
Can the wild ass give birth to the young lion ; or the turtle-dove 
come forth from the egg of an asp ? No more can the associations 
of mere lust or pride engender a holy life. He that sows to. the 
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. The spirit alone can pro- 
duce life everlasting. 

Keeping these fundamental principles in view, it will be easy to 
understand the primeval cause of divorce, viz., the disintegrating 
influence of unrighteousness. But there are many consociations of 
men and women, between whom there has never existed any thing 
like a real marriage. And the question here arises ; Is it expedi- 
ent to dissolve the legal bond which holds them in such a relation, 
after the contract has once been entered into between them ? 
This, however, gives rise to another question, to wit : Are they 
individually in a condition to form alliances with other parties, that 
will be more productive of peace and righteousness ? If it can be 
clearly shown that they, or either of them, were forced into this 
relation by the over stimulus of youthful desires, the tyranny of 
relatives, or unfortunate circumstances, while at the same time, 
they did not possess the necessary pre-requisites to love and harmony, 
and that consequently there had never been any real nuptials be- 
tween them on the plane of the spirit ; I can see no good reason why 
it is not both just and expedient that they should have the privilege 
of remedying their misfortune, by being allowed, under proper 
moral restrictions, to seek such other alliances, as to them may ap- 



DIVORCE. 439 

pear most conducive to happiness here, and best calculated to aid 
them in their preparation for a higher and a better world. 

But in those unions which were entered into from a reciprocal 
attachment, while no inordinate influence was thought to bear 
upon either of the parties, any subsequent discords that may arise, 
must necessarily spring from the caprice of the passions and ill-reg- 
ulated imaginations, rather than from any constitutional incompat- 
ability of temperament or disposition. Notwithstanding that in ex- 
treme cases it may be well for them to separate for a time, to 
avoid irritating the already inflamed dispositions of each other, 
there is nothing to be gained by a divorce : for, were they to form 
any number of new alliances, the same evils would attend them all, 
so long as they individually carried the elements of discord within 
themselves. A reformation, rather than a separation, is what 
is here needed. Concord becomes established between them, 
whenever it is established within them ; and the old love soon res- 
urrects itself into a newness of life. It was not dead ; but only 
smothered beneath the accumulated evils which had overwhelmed 
it. 

But here a third question arises to w r hich it is far more difficult 
to give an answer, viz : What just disposition can be made in those 
cases where one party is both satisfied and faithful in the discharge 
of every human duty ; while the other is unfaithful and dissatis- 
fied ? To deprive a husband or wife of a relation* that is held dear 
to him or her, in consequence of the short-comings of the other, 
seems to be cruel and unjust. But a continued attachment for one 
who will not or cannot reciprocate it, is only a waste of the higher 
forces of the constitution, which brings nothing good in return and 
leaves the soul barren and unfruitful. In all associations there is an 
exchange of elements corresponding to the state of the individuals. 
In case, for example, that any one member of a company is brought 
under the influence of excessive mirth, anger, or grief, every other 
member is sure to be affected, to a greater, or less degree, by the 
same emotion, even though the cause may be hid from the under- 
standing. Mere emotional revivals of religion , and epidemic manias 
are illustrations of the same principle.* But love is the esse of all 

* The term " emotional religion " is here used in contradistinction to a rational 
understanding of what constitutes religion and the proper means of obtaining it. 
It is briefly summed up in the saying, " If ye would enter into life keep the com- 
mandments ;" for, by so doing, the " emotions, " being the ultimate portals of life, 
are shielded from the infestations of evil by the rational principle which is the recep- 
tacle of theDivine precepts. Hence, religion proper has but one ingress into the soul 



440 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

existence and consequently the most powerful conjunctive medium 
between parties ; hence the Lord commands us to give him our 
hearts ; and the stronger the love the more immediate and com- 
plete are w T e conjoined to Him. This medium of conjunction con- 
veys to the individual the elements of that to which he is united 
whether they be good or evil ; so that this inexorable law renders 
us servants to whomsoever we yield ourselves servants to obey. 
Hence, to love those who are unworthy of regard is to partake of 
their moral and physical qualities, and thereby become instru- 
mental in propagating the same moral disorders. The apostle 
enjoins upon us not to keep company or even to eat with evil 
doers ; but to put them away as wicked persons.* 

Conception, whether on the plane of mind or matter, can never 
be effected only by the copulation of an active and passive agent. 
Two positive or two negative forces always repel one another. 
Were not this the case creation would be thrown into universal 
disorder, for were the wisdom principle to propagate itself without 
love it would have no incentive to effort ; and were the love prin- 
ciple to propagate itself without wisdom, it would have no directing 
force ; hence, neither of them, in their separate capacity, would 
have any ends of use. Creation was brought forth from the Eter- 
nal Good impregnated by the Eternal Truth ; and it is from the 
continued cooperation of these two, that universal existence is 
maintained. Mind and Matter alike partake of the primeval ele- 
ments of their progenitors, so that active and passive phases equally 
characterize both. 

In these primordial principles, we have the fundamental basis of 
all association. It is well understood, that on the natural plane the 
woman can yield nothing to the man, only as she is physically re- 
ceptive of his forces : and this receptivity is the result of some love 
within herself for what he bestows. If she is not brutalized, she 

and that is through the rationality and not through the emotions. Fear of divine ven- 
geance, has its origin in the emotions, but love to the Lord springs from a proper ap- 
preciation of his qualities. A moment's reflection will convince anj one that the Lord 
always addresses the understanding ; the Devil, the emotions. A subordination of 
the judgment to the will changes the positive pole of action to what should be the 
negative, which is a perfect inversion of divine order. Herein consists the antag- 
onism between the heavens and the hells. Consonant with this, the wife who 
truly loves her husband becomes negative to him ; and his positive sphere flowing 
to the ultimates of her negative, becomes a sentinel which shields her from every 
social contamination, provided he himself is in order: otherwise his evils flow to 
her as the negative party and beget in her such disorders as would never have 
been generated without this association. 
*lCor. 5 : 10-13. 



DIVORCE. 441 

cannot receive the embrace of an animal, or even of a man who is 
repulsive to her taste and moral aspirations ; for/these holding her 
body in subordination, violently repel any attempt to effect a union 
between dissimilar elements. Now let us apply the same law to 
the plane of the mind. Between divine and disorderly things 
there never can be any affinity, and consequently no spiritual union. 
The contrast between them is of the most extreme and antagonis- 
tic character ; not less than that between heaven and hell — the 
highest angel and the lowest demon. Wherefore it is an inevita- 
ble necessity, that in the ratio as a husband or wife becomes regen- 
erated, while the other does not, they in the same degree become 
spiritually divorced from each other. Like two vessels starting 
from the same port, but sailing in opposite directions, they are con- 
stantly journeying toward adverse states, until at last, in conse- 
quence of the moral distance between them, they lose all percep- 
tion of the condition and requirements of each other. And inas- 
much as good and evil can never embrace one another, though the 
parties may still remain in consociation of body, there can be no 
union of souls. Were it not for this inexorable law, there would 
be, not only a universal mixture of the good and the evil, but also 
of different generic species, until, at last, all things would become 
one heterogeneous mass of adverse elements, in which were des- 
troyed the fecundating principle. 

Assuming the correctness of these statements, it will be easy to 
trace the effects of coition upon parties who are in adverse states of 
life. It will be remembered that it has already been shown, that 
the prolific principle is a confluent force, springing alike from both 
the soul and the body, so that in it are incorporated both the moral 
and physical qualities of the individual. Moreover, it is proper 
here to add, that inasmuch as matter is subordinate to mind, the 
nervo-vital forces of the organism derive their quality from the 
condition of the spirit ; so that sin, when it is finished, brings forth 
death. Now, in every orderly relation, the masculine principle 
unites with the feminine, quickens her intuitions, aud ultimates 
through her perceptions. But elements flowing from a miscreant 
man to a woman who is being regenerated, can institute no coop- 
erative action upon the plane of the spirit ; for here, being herself 
in order, she becomes the positive party through the divine influ- 
ence now acting upon her, hence, in a state of non-receptivity of 
disorderly forces ; consequently these forces are thrown back, or 
rather, cast down, by her religious nature, into the plane of the 



442 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

physical, which acceded to their ingress ; first disordering the ner- 
vous action, and through it, the organic structure. So long, how- 
ever, as there remains a healthy menstruation through which these 
evils may find an easy egress from the system, provided she pos- 
sesses a good physical constitution, she may be able to maintain 
the balance of power. But more frequently they induce one or 
more of the catalogue of maladies known as " female diseases," and 
these in their turn, give rise to others which run a much shorter 
course to a fatal termination. 

But the question here arises: What effect does the same rela- 
tion produce upon the husband when he is becoming regenerated 
while the wife is not? He, unlike her, does not incorporate a 
physical element from her into his own system, but only a magnetic 
sphere, which he, being the formative party, is able to transpose 
into order in his own person, provided- he does not yield an 
acquiescence to her disorders. The masculine is the understanding 
or positive principle, whose prerogative is to control the desires 
and thence the actions of the will, which is the feminine, and of 
which woman is the representative, as man is that of the under- 
standing. Wherefore the apostle enjoins upon the wife to submit 
herself unto her own husband as unto the Lord, or, as it is fit in 
the Lord.* But no sooner does man yield to woman's evils than 
his understanding is rendered subordinate to his will, and he, in 
consequence of this inversion of divine order within himself, 
becomes as receptive of her evils as she w T as of his. In both 
instances, therefore, the evils become incorporated through the will 
into the life, and necessarily generate their legitimate fruits, for it 
should here be borne in mind, that as love is the essential quality 
of the will, from it proceeds every desire, so that the will is the 
moral as the understanding is the intellectual life of the individual. 
The spiritual state being the result of the conjoint action of the 
two. 

Immediately connected with the ultimate fecundating principle 
ot every unregenerated person is a pivotal demon in whom is focal- 
ized the forces of the hells for the subversion of this element, and 
through it the destruction of mankind. By this means lust reigns 
in the centre of the will and gives birth to self-love, which becomes 
the governing motive of every act of life up to the commencement 
of regeneration. Thus enthroned as a god of the will, every other 
impulse becomes infested with a subordinate fiend, who, as vice- 

* Eph. 5 : 22. Col. 3 : 18. 



DIVORCE. 443 

gcrents of their king, reign supreme in the realm over which they 
are appointed to bear rule. Disguise the fact, therefore, as we 
may, every act springing from unregenerated faculties, whether in 
or out of wedlock, bear in every part the superscription of " lust." 
Nor can this condition ever become changed only by casting out 
the demon who provokes the act, and enthroning the Lord by 
rendering obedience to his commandments, not from a mere worldly 
policy; but from a full conviction of a religious duty. This once 
accomplished, the act, which in the unregenerated is evil, becomes 
pure and holy through the divine sanction ; for the good and the 
evil is determined, not so much by the act itself, as by the influence 
which prompts it. 

But men and women who fail to possess the first principles of 
marriage harmony within themselves have sought to become 
wedded to each other ; but meeting with such discord as has sprung 
from the war of individual elements, and being unable to brook 
the horde of demons which they bring to each other, they seek to 
dissolve a relation which only makes manifest their own interior 
deformity. Philosophy and observation equally demonstrate the fact 
that discordant masculine and feminine associations not unfrequently 
generate the worst elements that are ever witnessed in the scenes 
of human depravity. 

With these fundamental principles before us we shall be better 
able to understand the nature of the marital relation, and for what 
causes it should be dissolved between parties who have once 
entered into its solemn compact. 

The further we penetrate into the mysteries of the human con- 
stitution, the more indubitable becomes the evidence that the Chris- 
tian Scriptures are an expression of the highest wisdom upon all 
subjects pertaining to the interest of mankind. 

There is here, however, a difficulty in ascertaining their specific 
meaning upon this mooted subject. Education, habits and evil 
desires, have all conspired to close up the perceptions against 
divine truths and to warp the judgment into an approval of moral 
disorders. Wherefore the constitution of the individual, the inte- 
rior relation of the sexes, and their conjoint relation to the Creator, 
have been so little understood that it has left us exposed to the 
most mischievous errors in reference to the divine teachings upon 
this triune marriage. I say triune, because a real marriage 
between the sexes can take place only as the result of a marriage 
between the Will and the Understanding of the individual ; and 



444 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the highest marriage of all, which is a conjoint relation of the par- 
ties with the Lord, can be consummated in its most complete degree 
only by the perfect conjugial relation of the sexes. 

The ecclesiastical courts of Europe prohibited divorce for any cause 
except adultery on the part of the wife, and the Roman Catholic 
church makes it a sacrament and indissoluble for any cause what- 
ever. But in this country, where all religions are protected, and 
none established by law, there has been a great diversity of opin- 
ions, and fluctuation in the jurisprudential regulations of this institu- 
tion. For this reason several legal writers and others, have contended 
that the theological question should not be admitted- into legis- 
lation upon this subject. But the only valid reason which can be 
brought to maintain such a position, is, that the Scripture restrictions 
are too straight for the present disordered state of society. It is 
not sufficient to inform us that we are not obliged to take the 
advantage of lenient laws, for we have a right to protect ourselves, 
as far as possible, from the baneful effects of vicious examples. 
For however well-grounded may be the majority of a community 
in their convictions of the expediency of yielding obedience to 
Divine regulations, every example of vicious conduct tends to cor- ■ 
rupt the public taste, darken its moral perceptions, and to weaken 
every holy resolution. But its worst effect is upon the rising gen- 
eration, which, as yet, having framed no fixed ideas of morality, 
mold their opinions and characters from the circumstances and 
conditions by which they are surrounded. Witnessing frequent 
exhibitions of social disorder which are so far sanctioned by state 
laws as to escape the deserved punishment of their misdemeanors, 
they are educated to make but little or no distinction between vice 
and virtue. The barriers to vicious habits thus once broken 
through, society speedily becomes deluged with its mischievous 
effects. Disorganization is sure to follow, increasing in a geomet- 
rical progression, until the social fabric is razed from its foundation 
and unless providentially prevented, nationally destroyed. But it 
may here be added that this institution pertains to a spiritual as well 
as a sensual union ; and that one of its chief uses is to properly fit each 
other for a better world, and for a higher, happier, and more per- 
manent union hereafter. Such being the case, it is no less a religious 
than a secular institution, and its sacred relation is infinitely more 
important than its sensual. 

Bishop is of the opinion that " the legislative question in this 
country upon divorce, is one purely of social and political expedi- 



DIVORCE. 445 

ency and propriety." * If by this he means that " expediency 
and propriety " are in harmony with divine principles, he is right ; 
but a legislation upon any subject, independent of the fundamental 
principles of Scripture teaching, is entitled to no respect from a 
Christian community. The experience of mankind for more than 
two thousand years, has, in every instance, clearly demonstrated 
that any legislation not founded on the divine precepts, has proved 
disastrous to society. And this will ever continue to be the case, 
from the fact that these precepts cover the only ground on which 
a code of laws can be framed adequate to the needs of man. I 
cannot help here expressing my apprehension that this desecration 
of virtue, this incessant domination of physical over moral ideas, 
of ideas of expediency over those of right, having already 
dethroned religion in the secular department of society, and dis- 
placed virtue from her ancient basis, will, if it is suffered to pro- 
ceed, ere long shake the foundation of states, and endanger the ex- 
istence of civilization. Should it ever become popular through the 
strenuous efforts now being made, should it ever descend from specu- 
lation into common life, and become the practical morality of the 
age, we may apply to such a period the awful words of Balaam : 
Who shall live ivhen God shall do this f No imagination can por- 
tray, no mind can grasp its horrors ; nor, when the angel of the 
Apocalypse, to whom the keys are intrusted, shall be commissioned 
to open the bottomless pit, will it send forth a thicker cloud of pes- 
tilential vapor. If the apparent naturalness and simplicity of thi s 
system be alleged in its favor, I would say, it is the naturalness of 
a perverted and depraved nature, or rather, unnature, which needs 
the restraining influence of (Jivine laws, and its simplicity is the 
simplicity of meanness, a simplicity which is its shame ; a daylight 
which reveals its beggary. 

The further w T e wander from the Scripture basis into the mazy 
labyrinths of experimental legislation — the wider the range given 
to the unsubdued passions of mankind, the more corrupt will socie- 
ty become, and the greater evils will it be compelled to encounter. 
It is folly to suppose that man can judiciously legislate without that 
wisdom which comes to him through the medium of the Inspired 
Word ; for so dark are his moral perceptions, and so bewildered his 
judgment, that even with this invaluable aid, imperfection charac- 
terizes all his best efforts. Nature is but a negative principle, and 
can furnish us no light above its instinctive emotions. Moral and 

*Marriage and Divorce, p. 220, 
57 



446 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

intellectual illumination must come from God, and the Christian 
Scriptures are the medium of its descent to the world. Here we 
shall find, therefore, the highest wisdom in reference to the subject 
under consideration, — hence to the law and the testimony. 

The Mosaic law, as generally interpreted, allowed the husband 
to be the sole judge of the causes for which he might put away his 
wife ; if such was really the case, it was equivalent to permitting 
him to divorce her at pleasure. "When a man hath taken a wife, 
and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in 
his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her : then let 
him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it into her hand 
and send her out of his house."* When the Pharisees temptingly 
put the question directly to our Lord, " Why did Moses then com- 
mand them to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away ?" 
he answered by saying : " Moses because of the hardness of yonr 
hearts suffered you to put away your wives ; but from the begin- 
ning it was not so :"f and then repeats the statements he made in 
his sermon on the mount. 

There was a dispute between the two schools of Shammai and 
Hillel as to the meaning of the passage referred to in Deuteronomy. 
Shammai held it to mean ivhoredom or adultery ; but the school of 
Hillel maintained that it signified any corporeal defect which ren- 
dered the person deformed, or had temper which made the husband's 
life uncomfortable. But whatsoever the cause might be, except 
fornication, that induced the husband to put away his wife, our 
Lord forbade their second marriage on the penalty of adultery, 
against which heavy judgments were pronounced. Adultery being 
the greater crime, it is not presumable that he would allow the 
parties to contract a second marriage who were separated for no 
less grievous offences ; and all legal jurisprudence founded upon 
divine principles, would hold the absconding or unfaithful party 
amenable to the penalties attached to the law against bigamy, in 
case of second marriage ; for it should not be granted them to 
make their own wickedness the means of another victim. If they 
were thus held as criminals, both in law and public sentiment, there 
can be no reasonable doubt that this salacious evil, now so appall- 
ing in this country would be much abated. Paul is most emphatic 
upon this subject ; affirming that the Lord especially commands 
through him : " Let not the wife depart from her husband ; but if 
she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her hus- 

*Deut. 24:1. t Matt. 19:8. 



DIVORCE. 447 

band : and let not the husband put away his wife."* And this is 
in perfect agreement with our Lord's statement, wherein he 
assures us that adultery is the consequence of a second marriage 
with any one maliciously separated from their legal consort. Jcse- 
phus remarks : " He that desires to be divorced from his wife for 
any cause whatsoever, and many such causes happen among men, 
(Showing that among the Jews divorce was not confined to adul- 
tery,) let him in writing give assurance that he will never use her 
as his wife any more ; for by these means she may be at lib- 
erty to marry another husband, although before this bill of divorce 
be given, she is not to be permitted so to do, but if she be misused 
by him also, or if, when he is dead, her first husband would marry 
her again, it shall not be lawful for her to return to him." 

It is but reasonable to suppose that whatever effectually defeats 
the ends of marriage is a just and proper cause of a divorce. A 
help-meet implies more than what is involved in mere sensual 
pleasures. These are of minor importance. The end which this 
institution keeps in view is the highest use, both to the parties and 
to society, temporal, spiritual and eternal — the conjugial delights 
being but the legitimate blossoms springing from a faithful discharge 
of every duty. Husband and wife exert such reciprocal influence 
over each other that their proper relationship is of the greatest 
importance. Their prosperity and enjoyment in this life, and their 
fit preparation for the next, chiefly depend upon their orderly asso- 
ciation. Adultery is not the only sin which unfits them for the 
proper discharge of their duties to each other. A continual dis- 
regard of the real interest of the other — an habitual encourage- 
ment in vicious habits to the endangering of the interest of the soul, 
and a persistent refusal to discharge the duties implied in the mar- 
riage covenant, equally unfit the parties for this holy alliance. 
Such being the case, we cannot rationally suppose that our -Lord 
intended to confine his definition of fornication to the single act of 
illicit intercourse ; but extended it to imply such conduct as deprived 
one or both of the parties of the benefits which the conjugal rela- 
tion was designed to confer. This opinion is abundantly sustained 
both by reason and confirmatory testimony. 

" Whosoever shall put away his wife saving for the cause of forni- 
cation, causeth her to commit adultery ; and whosoever shall marry 
her that is divorced committeth adultery."! Milton contends that 
Christ did not, by this language, intend to change at all the Jewish 

* 1 Cor. 7 : 10, 11. t Matt. 5 : 32. 



448 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

law on the subject, and, in, support of this view, cites the seven- 
teenth verse of the same chapter, in which he says that he did not 
come to destroy the law but to fulfill. It is observable, that both 
in the Greek and the English translation, the offense spoken of is 
fornication, which could not be committed before marriage ; but 
no one supposes that anti-nuptial incontinence is a just ground of 
divorce ; so that we must seek some other and perhaps metaphysial 
meaning for the word. Milton quotes Grotius, who shows that 
fornication is taken in Scripture for such a continual headstrong 
behavior as tends to plain contempt of the husband, and proves it 
out of Judges. 19 : 2 ; where the Levite's wife is said to have 
played the whore against him, which Josephus and the Septuagint, 
with the Chaldaic, interpreted only as stubbornness and rebellion 
against her husband ; and to this, he continues, " I add, that 
Kimchi, and the two other rabbis who gloss the text, are in the 
same opinion." That literal adultery was not intended by this word, 
fornication, he argues from the further consideration, that this 
offense was punishable by death, and, therefore, that divorce could 
be of no importance in such a case. 

Dr. Taylor considers that the word in the original, " can, with 
no propriety, be rendered adultery." But assuming that it can, he 
adds, " A very sensible writer now before me has given the word 
this turn, viz.: That no cause for separation could be good, except 
adultery, or such facts as had the nature, the rationem of adultery; 
such as were like it, tended to it, or in short, would finally defeat 
and interrupt the destined end of this institution, as adultery actu- 
ally did." And he remarks of some of the words of Christ in 
restraint of divorce, as reported in the Evangelists, that they seem 
to allow of no exceptions but are to be taken in a general sense, 
subject, like all other general propositions, to exceptions. Others, 
immediately following, admit of one at least, which is said to be that 
of fornication. To which it may be added that his Apostle, who 
spake by his authority, has added another, viz.: That of malicious 
desertion, if indeed it be another, and not comprehended under the 
former. For, when a wife maliciously deserts her husband, there 
is strong presumptive evidence at least, that she has already defiled 
the marital bed, and that the last act is the result of the first; for 
it has been abundantly shown throughout these pages that when- 
ever a woman incorporates into her system the virile principle 
from extra-marital relations it sets up a divorcing action upon every 
plane throughout her constitution. 



DIVORCE. 449 

But still, assuming that the word fornication here means adultery, 
it is further suggested that Christ, addressing a people among whom 
polygamy was allowed, so that when the wife ceased to discharge, 
towards her husband, the duties enjoined by marriage, she ceased in 
fact to be a wife, and he could marry another, and thus the question 
of his right to divorce her could not arise — had reference, in the 
above passage, solely to the question which was supposed to be 
really propounded to him, viz.: whether a man had a right to put 
away a wife who adhered to him, and discharged her duties as wife ; 
and he said that for no cause but her adultery, (which might be 
committed while she still discharged her duties to her husband,) 
could she be rightfully divorced, leaving entirely out of his con- 
templation the case of one who refused to conduct herself as wife 
to her husband. 

Martin Bucer, a man of great learning in the Reformed Church, 
is translated by Milton, as follows : " No man who is not very 
contentious will deny, that the Pharisees asked our Lord whether 
it was lawful to put away such a wife, as was truly, and according 
to God's law, to be accounted a wife ; that is, such a one as would 
dwell with her husband, and both would and could perforin the 
necessary duties of wedlock tolerably. But she who will not 
dwell with her husband is not put aivay by him but goes off her- 
self ; and she who denies to be a help-meet, or to be so, hath made 
herself unfit by open misdemeanors, or through incurable impo- 
tences cannot be able, is not by the law of God to be esteemed a 
wife ; as hath been shown both from the first institution, and other 
places of Scripture. Neither, certainly, would the Pharisees pro- 
pound a question concerning such an unconjugal wife; for their 
deprivation of the law had brought them to that pass, as to think 
that a man had a right to put away his wife for any cause, though 
never so slight. Since, therefore, it is manifest, that Christ 
answered the Pharisees concerning a fit and meet wife, according 
to the law of God, whom He forbade to divorce for any cause but 
fornication ; who sees not that it is a wickedness so to wrest and 
extend that answer of his, as if it forbade to divorce her who hath 
already forsaken, or hath undertaken to be that which she hath 
not natural ability to be ? " 

Bucer further says : u The wife's desertion of her husband the 
Christian emperors plainly decreed to be a just cause of divorce, 
whereas they granted him the right thereof, if she had but lain out 
one night against his will without probable cause. But of the man 



450 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

deserting his wife, they did not so determine ; yet, if we look into 
the word of God, we shall find, that he who though but for a year, 
without just cause forsook his wife, and neither provided for her 
maintenance, nor signified his purpose of returning, and good will 
towards her, when as he may, hath perfected his right in her so 
forsaken. For the Spirit of God speaks plainly, that both man and 
wife have sucl} power over one another's person, as that they can- 
not deprive each other of living together, but by consent and for a 
time. Hither may be added, that the Holy Spirit grants desertion 
to be a cause of divorce, in those answers given to the Corinthians 
concerning a brother or sister deserted by a misbeliever. u If she 
depart let her depart ; a brother or sister is not under bondage in 
such a case." In which words who sees not that the Holy Ghost 
openly pronounced, that the party without cause deserted, is not 
bound fcr another's willful desertion, to abstain from marriage if 
he have needs thereof?" 

" But some will say, that this is spoken of a misbeliever departing. 
But I beseech ye, doth not he reject the faith of Christ in his deeds, 
who rashly breaks the holy covenant of wedlock instituted by God ? 
And beside this, the Holy Spirit does not make the misbehaving 
of him who departs, but the parting of him who disbelieves, to be 
the just cause of freedom to the brother or sister. Since, therefore, 
it will be agreed among Christians, that they who depart from 
wedlock without just cause, do not only deny the faith of matri- 
mony, but of Christ also, whatever they profess with their mouth, 
it is but reason to conclude that the party deserted is not bound in 
case of causeless desertion, but that he may lawfully seek another 
consort, if it be needful to him toward a pure and blameless con- 
versation." * * * 

" The words of our Lord, and of the Holy Ghost, out of which 
Austin and some others of the fathers think it concluded, that our 
Savior forbids marriage after any divorce, are these : Matthew 5 : 
31, 32 : 4 It hath been said,' &c, and Matthew 19 : 7 : ' They say 
unto him, why did Moses thus command,' &c. : and Mark 10, 
and Luke 8: 1, 2, 3. 1 Corinthians 7 : 10, 11. Hence, there- 
fore, they concluded that all marriage after divorce is called adul- 
tery ; which to commit, being no way to be tolerated in any 
Christian, they think it follows, that second marriage is in no Case 
to be permitted either to the divorcer or to the divorced. 

u But that it may be more fully and plainly perceived what force 
is in this kind of reasoning, it will be the best course, to lay down 



DIVORCE. 451 

certain grounds whereof no Christian can doubt the truth. First, 
it is a wickedness to suspect that our Lord branded that as adul- 
tery, which himself, in his own law which he came to fulfill, and 
not to dissolve, did not only permit, but also, commanded ; for by 
him the only mediator, was the whole law of God given. But 
that by this law of God marriage was permitted after any divorce, 
is certain by Deuteronomy 24 ; 1, 2 : l When man hath taken a 
wife, and married her, and it comes to pass that she find no favor 
in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her ; then 
let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it into her hand, 
and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of 
his house, she may go and be another man's wife.' But in Mala- 
chi 2 : 15, 16, is read the Lord's commandment to put her away 
when a man hates, in these words : ' Take heed to your spirits and 
let none deal unjustly against the wife of his youth. If he hate 
let him put away, saith the Lord God of Israel. And he shall 
hide thy violence with his garments,' that marries her divorced by 
thee ' saith the Lord of hosts ; but take heed to your spirits, and 
do no injury.' By these testimonies of the divine law, w r e see that 
the Lord did not only permit it, but also expressly and earnestly 
commanded his people, by whom he would that all holiness and 
faith of marriage covenant should be observed, that he who could 
not induce his mind to love his w T ife w T ith a true conjugal love, 
might dismiss her, that she might marry to another." 

* * * « It is agreed by all who determine of the kingdom and 
office of Christ by the Holy Scriptures, as all godly men ought to 
do, that our Savior upon earth took not on him either to give 
new laws in civil affairs, or to change the old. But it is certain, 
that matrimony and divorce are civil things. Which the Christian 
emperors, knowing, gave conjugal laws, and reserved the adminis- 
tration of them to their own courts ; which no true ancient bishop 
ever condemned. Our Savior came to preach repentance and 
remission : seeing, therefore, those who put away their wives with- 
out any just cause, were not touched with conscience of the sin, 
through misunderstanding of th^laws, he recalled them to a right 
interpretation, and taught that the woman in the beginning was so 
joined to the man, that there should be a perpetual union both in 
body and spirit : where this is not, the matrimony is already 
broken, before there yet be any divorce made, or second marriage."* 

" But if the unbelieving depart let him depart. A brother or a 
sister is not under bondage in such a case ; but God hath called us 

* Bucer. 



452 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

to peace."* u Whether husband or wife ; if such obstinately 
depart," says Dr. A. Clark, " and utterly refuse all cohabitation, 
a brother or sister, a Christian man or woman is not under bondage 
to any particular law so as to be prevented from marrying ; such 
probably the law stood then ; but it is not so now, for the marriage 
can only be dissolved by death, or by the ecclesiastical courts. 
ILv en fornication or adultery, does not dissolve the marriage con- 
tract; nor will the obstinate absentment of any of the parties, how- 
ever long continued, give the party abandoned, authority to 
marry."f 

President Dwight, of Yale College, in A. D. 1816, preached a 
sermon before the executive and a great part of the legislature of 
the State of Connecticut, in which he took strong ground against 
all dissolutions of marriage, except for adultery. But at the same 
time, admitted that several respectable commentators, and among 
them Pole, Doddridge and Macknight, considered divorce for 
desertion justifiable by the text in Corinthians, above cited. 
Indeed, it would be difficult to perceive why a willful refusal to 
discharge the obligations imposed in the marriage contract is not 
as just a cause for a divorce from the absenting party as adultery 
itself; for in no way can this contract be more effectually broken 
than by a persistent absentment from bed and board. 

I have before said that there is strong presumptive evidence of 
adultery when one party malignantly forsakes the other, though 
from the nature of the case, it may be difficult or impossible to pro- 
cure the necessary legal proof to secure a conviction of guilt. But 
the fact of a refusal, without some reason, to discharge the marital 
obligations is prima facie evidence of a degree of depravity which 
should hold the delinquent guilty of crime and free the innocent 
party from a contract already violated ; and which was not entered 
into with any such consideration ; but on the contrary from a 
mutual pledge of fidelity. If, therefore, there is no other offense, 
the absconding party is guilty not only of the crime of forswear- 
ing and maliciously robbing another of his or her highest rights, 
but of committing an outrage upgn the public morals by a vicious 
example which demonstrates a moral unfitness for this relation. 
For this reason it appears abundantly evident that while the inno- 
cent party should be freed from the legal bond of a marriage 
already destroyed in spirit and deprived of its use, the guilty party 
should, as just penalty, be perpetually held amenable to the laws, 
* 1 Cor. 7 : 15. t Commentaries. 



DIVORCE. 453 

and restrained from committing further outrages upon this institu- 
tion, at least until substantial evidence is furnished of a reformation. 

The crime of willful desertion is the most atrocious, short of 
absolute murder, that can be committed against a human being, 
and should not be passed lightly over. Love is not only the most 
tender, but the most ardent and endearing principle of the human 
mind, and the most intimately connected with the entire organic 
structure. It often clings with more than mortal tenacity to the 
object of its devotion. Its entwining tendrils become so inter- 
woven with the life of the person with whom it has been accustom- 
ed to mingle for years in the most intimate relation, that to suddenly 
rend them is worse than death. The sufferings caused by so 
wicked an act is often beyond description. Days, months, and 
years are dragged out in alternation between hope and fear of the 
ultimate result. Feelings of disgrace and humiliation weigh down 
the deserted victim, who is now deprived of a companion, or the 
privilege of seeking one. Every imperfection, however slight, is 
too often magnified into a crime ; and the vile spirit of slander 
becomes busy in its efforts to complete, the ruin. The enjoyments 
of the domestic relations are destroyed, character suspected, chil- 
dren rendered more than orphans, wealth takes to itself wings and 
flies away, or is squandered in useless litigations ; the mind bewil- 
dered for the want of conjugal action, — ambition paralyzed, and 
the heart moodily drooping over its own sorrows. Thus, every- 
thing which tends to make life agreeable, is swept away by one 
fell stroke. How true it is, that the disruption of the conjugal 
sphere opens a highway for the ingress of every moral disorder. 

But let us trace the consequence of this act one step further, for 
the effects of these accumulated misfortunes do not end with their 
seeming. The mental powers are the controlling force of the 
human constitution, — the body being but the negative pole of the 
mind, is subordinate to it, and reflects its condition. The mind 
and the nervous system, like cause and effect, are so immediately 
connected that neither can be considered separately. It is impos- 
sible to conceive of mind without nervous action, or of nervous 
action without mind. The ganglionic system of the polypifera 
and mollusca, although without an encephalon by which sensation 
becomes focalized into will and intelligence, as is the case with 
man, is the rudimental organic structure of mental emotion. 
In the lower order of sentient beings, it is denominated instinct ; 
in man, intelligence. But the principle involved is the same, 



454 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

differing only in degree arising from a larger combination of gan- 
glionic structure, in which is included the encephalon itself. Emo- 
tion is but the agitation or instinctive impulse of the ganglionic 
structure; and is according to the degree of mental power which 
that structure possesses. Intelligence is the ultimate expression of 
the combined action of all the ganglia throughout the organic 
system. Hence, when we descend from intelligence to the purely 
emotional actions in man, we find a close correspondence between 
them and those actions in the lower animals to which we give the 
name of instinctive. For example, the cuttle-fish is well known 
to discharge ink, when pursued, and to tinge the water around 
with a color so deep, as to enable it to escape under the cloud thus 
formed. Now, it is not to be supposed that this fish has any notion 
of the purpose which this act will serve ; since its constancy and 
uniformity, and the provision for its performance immediately on 
the emersion of the young animal from the egg, forbids our regard- 
ing it as the result of any act of reasoning. And still there is 
an instinctive mentality, without the process of reasoning, which 
is as practical and efficacious as the most profound logic could 
devise ; so that the difference between instinct and intelligence is 
in the relative size of the encephalonic ganglia, as we rise in the 
scale of organization by which it is capable of intelligently com- 
bining the organic forces. But this is not the place to discuss this 
intricate subject, only so far as is necessary to show the immediate 
effect of the emotions upon the various organic structures. 

If these views be correct, we shall find that the emotions of any 
organized being are in the ratio to its ganglionic structure, and that 
each ganglia is an instructive force controlling the action and the 
condition of the organ with which it is immediately connected. In 
the higher classes of organization where the ganglionic forces 
become focalized, in the cerebral hemispheres, into will and intel- 
ligence, through the medium of the sensory nerves, as in the case 
of man, the minor, or what we may denominate the distributed 
ganglia, are, to a large extent, subordinate to the mental condition 
and controlled by it. There is an abundance of physical facts which 
clearly establish the truth of this opinion. This is most obvious in 
regard to the heart. Every one must have experienced the dis- 
turbance of its pulsations consequent upon excitement of the feel- 
ings of almost every description. A slight itching of some part of 
the surface may be magnified, by the direction of the thoughts to 
it, into an almost unbearable sensation ; while as soon as they are 



DIVORCE. 455 

forced by some strange impression into another channel, the irrita- 
tion is no longer felt. The emotions have an immediate action 
upon the molecular changes which constitute the functions of 
nutrition and secretion, greatly increasing or diminishing the 
deposition of adipose matter. Moreover, it is a well attested fact, 
that any sudden or violent shock to the nervous system so alters 
the condition of the blood by destroying its vital properties that its 
usual coagulation will not take place after death. A less violent 
shock cannot fail to effect it in a corresponding degree — this, in its 
turn, effecting the nutrition and secretion of the whole organic 
structure. 

The influence of particular conditions of the mind in exciting 
various secretions is also a matter of daily experience. The flow 
of saliva, for example, is stimulated by the idea of food, or checked 
by fear ; the lachrymal secretion for bathing the eye is poured out 
in great abundance under the excitement of the emotions, either of 
joy, tenderness or grief; the secretion of milk in a nursing female 
may not only be increased or diminished in quantity by her mental 
condition, but may also be converted into the most fatal poison. It is 
also a well founded opinion that melancholy and jealousy have a 
direct tendency to increase the quantity and vitiate the quality of the 
biliary fluids. The halitus from the lungs is sometimes almost 
instantaneously affected by bad news, and becomes fetid. Other 
secretions are in a like manner vitiated by mental emotions, although 
the influence is not always so immediately perceptible. In 
extreme cases, arising from the loss of friends, reputation, or 
property, or those disappointments in life, which seem to be, to a 
greater or less extent, the common lot of all, the sedative effects of 
the depressing emotions are often sufficient to suspend nervous 
action and ultimate in death. 

In view of these facts, there can be no good reason assigned 
why a malignant desertion should not be classed among the most 
heinous crimes which mankind are capable of perpetrating ; for 
what greater crime can one human being commit against another, 
than to deprive him of his social enjoyment, his wealth, his repu- 
tation, his health, and ultimately, of his life ? It is a robbery 
of all that makes life dear, and a murder by slow degrees. Nor 
can there be any reasonable doubt that the restraining influ- 
ence of the law, or the lack of nerve, is all that prevents such a 
miscreant from destroying their victim by more expeditious means. 
Their moral delinquency is ample to justify any extremity. Thus 



456 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

cut loose from every restraining influence by'which they could ever 
hope to become regenerated, they fester corruption, and become a 
moral nuisance in society, shunned by the* virtuous, and clandes- 
tinely sought by the vicious. 

It is seldom, however, that such an apostate is satisfied in per- 
fidiously absconding, but seeks self-justification by disparaging and 
slandering his or her consort. It is often difficult in domestic broils 
for the public to decide on the real merits of the case, or where the 
guilt chiefly lies. With maiay, the art of dissembling is so great, 
(and this is especially the case with miscreants,) that while they 
present to the world the appearance of a quiet disposition and harm- 
less life, like whited sepulchres, they are, at the same time, internally 
full of all manner of uncleanness. While exposed to others, out- 
side of their domestic circle, their evil passions skulk behind secre- 
tiveness, but only to burst forth with greater fury as soon as the 
outward restraints are removed. The public, beholding only a 
fair exterior, naturally conclude that any dissatisfaction must arise 
from causes well founded and having their existence in the opposite 
party. Bad as man is, woman is far worse when she once falls 
from her integrity. " Her feet go down to death ; her steps take 
hold on hell." * 

But a husband or wife who strives to break up their marital re- 
lation, without ample reason for so doing, offers the strongest evi- 
dence of their own moral obliquity ; and it may well be questioned 
whether the guilt does not lie alone with the disaffected party. The 
fact of seeking such a separation is 2^i?na facie evidence of a deprav- 
ity which wholly unfits any individual for the orderly relation of 
life ; and in a large majorit}^ of such cases, it is found that they are 
either already wickedly associating with a paramour, or seek to 
secure greater freedom in criminal commerce. 

Let us now trace the effect of such conduct upon the transgres- 
sor. It appears to be a fundamental principle of the human con- 
stitution, that the disposition to wrong-doing creates the conditions 
of its own punishment ; so that we cannot do an injury to another 
without, at the same time, doing a still greater one to ourselves. 
All associated action is either by an expressed or an implied agree- 
ment. Every agreement or assent, upon whatever plane of life it 
may take place, becomes a conjunctive medium between the parties, 
which it is impossible to sever only by a moral force. If the con- 
tract be entered into for mischievous purposes, as in the case of 

* Prov. 5:4. 



DIVORCE. 457 

associated banditti, or for gambling, etc., either party may sever 
the bond by rising into the moral sentiments, and religiously refus- 
ing to perform their stipulated part. In every such case, the Di- 
vine sphere intercepts between the evil and the more righteous in- 
tention, and frees the repentant culprit from an agreement which 
never contained the least moral obligation. But with religious 
contracts it is different, (and all contracts are religious which have 
in view the good of social interest,) for inasmuch as these connect 
with the higher principles, there is no force by which they can be 
annulled — a faithful fulfillment being the only possible release. 
Evil being but a negative principle, or more properly, an inverted 
action without spiritual life, and subordinate to good, has no power 
to cancel a bond between parties. The most that it can do is to 
throw in obstructions to its fulfillment,, so that by the delinquency 
of one, the other becomes morally free ; but it can never sever the 
conjunction between them, for the delinquent is still held by the 
same moral force as before, from which there is no release only by 
repentance or a discharge of duty. And by repentance is implied 
that reformation which religiously enforces upon the penitent, so 
far as in his power, a discharge of all his moral obligations. But 
just here lies the difficulty. Evil having once gained the ascendency 
over an individual, stimulates his passions, and at the same time 
darkens his moral perceptions, which induces him to add insult to 
injury, so as to obstruct the way, and weaken the inclination to 
return to justice. 

If it be said that he may be forgiven, I reply, that forgiveness 
only reinstates the offender into the friendship of the person he has 
injured ; but in no way releases him from the discharge of his obli- 
gations. The offence, though forgiven in the sense of any retalia- 
tion for the injury, is still morally held against him ; for "he that 
justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they 
both are an abomination to the Lord."* To desire an escape from 
the deserved punishment would be a hostility to the divine arrange- 
ment, which no Christian man could encourage ; and which would 
tend to destroy all distinction between vice and virtue. It is 
enough' to be content to leave them where the reaction of their 
wrong-doing will work its own penalty. The benefits accruing 
from forgiveness, humanly speaking, therefore, are far greater to 
the forgiver than to the forgiven. The Lord forgives all mankind 
in the sense of holding no malice against them ; but to forgive in 

* Prov. 17 : 15. 



458 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the sense of staving the penalty for wrong-doing, without a repent- 
ance and reformation on the part of the offender, would be to 
cooperate with crime and remove those restraints which are needful 
to be kept over the wayward, as the only means of maintaining 
the order of society. 

Keeping in view these fundamental principles of connection 
between parties who have once entered into a covenant with each 
other, it will be seen that a non-fulfillment on the natural plane of 
a moral obligation becomes the means of its perpetuity on the spir- 
itual. Let us illustrate : A. borrows of B. one thousand dollars, 
which he agrees to pay at his earliest convenience or whenever it 
may be demanded. A. thus places himself under a moral obliga- 
tion to B., of which the loan becomes the material basis. But if A. 
passes into the spiritual world, while possessing the means but not 
the disposition to discharge the debt, he becomes, by this change of 
condition, ever after deprived of the opportunity of extricating 
himself from the demands held against him. And as the spiritual 
life has its basis in the natural, of which it is the coopposite or 
reactive principle, the moral basis of the obligation forever con- 
tinues as it was here formed. The bondage is from A. to B., not 
vice versa, so that B. becomes absorbent of the spiritual forces of 
A. through the moral obligation by which he is held. This illus- 
tration, moreover, applies with equal force to every social duty, 
and also to the religious demands laid upon us of faith in the Lord 
and obedience to His commandments. " As righteousness tendeth 
to life ; so he that pursueth evil, pursueth it to his own death."* 

If these views of the Divine arrangement be correct, it will be 
seen that when a marriage contract has been once consummated, it 
can never be annulled on the spiritual plane, only by a faithful dis- 
charge of duty during the period for which the contract was 
formed, viz.: the natural life. To divorce them may free the inno- 
cent party, but it never can the guilty, for the contract still remains 
unredeemed. The only alternative now left the offender, is a re- 
pentance, reformation, and restitution, so far as it is possible. 
Without this, the moral obligation, never having been canceled by 
either a fulfillment or a repentance for the delinquency, will con- 
tinue forever. Wherefore, not being morally freed from the old 
contract, they can never form a new conjugial alliance, either in this 
life or the next, so that any associations on the conjugal plane — 
whatever sanction society may render it — is only spiritual adultery 

* Prov. 11 : 19. 



DIVORCE. 459 

by which they are sunk still deeper into evil. The conjugal sphere 
of the delinquent now flows to the injured party ; and as this is the 
productive plane, the former is not only deprived of his gener- 
ative force, from which every principle of happiness is derived, but 
at the same time becomes absorbent of the remaining evils of his 
victim. Here we find the law upon which that statement of our 
Lord was founded, in which he informs us that " he that hath, to 
him shall be given ; and he that hath not, from him shall be taken 
even that which he hath."* How terrible are the consequences 
of sin. 

" No crime," says O. S. Fowler, " not even murder, is greater 
than breaking matrimonial relations ; for frequently it either takes 
the life of its broken-hearted victim, or else, worse than a thousand 
deaths, plunges into infamy and w 7 o ! No penalty, therefore, 
should be greater ; and, accordingly, what is more fearful than the 
wages of this sin ? The sanctum sanctorum of humanity polluted 
and trodden into the dust ! The flood-gates of every species of 
wickedness hoisted ! Pandora's box of physical and moral maladies 
opened upon man ! And all only the natural consequences and 
penalties of trifling with connubial love — that most sacred element 
of our nature ! Would that mankind duly estimated this conse- 
crated emotion, and trifled with it no more than w 7 ith death ! That 
they considered its violation, what indeed it is, the crime of all 
crimes, because the greatest destroyer of human happiness, and 
incendiary of human passions ! Laborers in the glorious cause of 
moral purity ! our subject lays out your course of procedure. It 
tells you to^say less about licentiousness as such, and more against 
this almost universal flirtation and coquetry of both sexes. These 
are the chief causes — the great maelstrom of moral impurity. 
Remove them and their effects will cease. Prevent them, and then 
properly direct and sanctify the affections of both married and 
single, and one generation will bury this vice in all its forms, and 
substitute moral purity therefor. And just in proportion as you 
effect the former, will you thereby accomplish the latter ; whereas, 
other efforts comparatively but lop off the branches of this deep- 
rooted and wide-spread tree of human corruption and woe, while 
this lays the axe at its very root — an infallible prevention, and a 
specific cure." f 

Notwithstanding the importance of the principles here set forth, 
there is unfortunately existing in the United States a large class of 

* Mark 4: 25. f Love and Parentage, p. 88. 



460 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

both men and women who diligently seek to destroy every orderly 
relation between the sexes. Within the past few years several 
millions have sprung up under the name of Spiritualists, Free 
Lovers and Reformers, who ignore the Christian Scriptures, sub- 
stitute in their place the teachings of familiar spirits, or their 
own misdirected reason, inculcate the naturalness of all sensual 
appetites and the consistency of their unrestrained indulgence. 
Many of them, like a moral pestilence, have spent their time in 
traveling from place to place, both preaching and practicing their 
licentious principles, leading the unwary and such as were predis- 
posed to follow their own proclivities to evil, to accept their views 
and fall into like mischievous habits. " They speak evil of those 
things which they know not, but what they know yiaturally as 
brute heast, in those things they corrupt themselves : raging like 
waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame."* 

By such indiscreet and wicked interference with the Divine 
arrangement, this relation has degenerated from a sacramental to a 
mere secular institution, which, in several of the states, is so far 
deprived of its sanctity as to allow divorce without proof of any 
moral wrong or even alleged guilt. Miscreant husbands and wives 
who may imagine that their carnal appetites can be better gratified 
by a change of partners, are permitted to forswear themselves by 
forsaking the companions of their youth and ignoring their mar- 
riage vows. These frequent outrages against this institution tend 
to destroy the finer social sensibilities and to corrupt the public 
morals by inuring others to scenes of depravity. u By the bless- 
ings of the upright the city is exalted ; but it is overthrown by the 
mouth of the wicked. "f 

Keeping in view the principles set forth in this and the two pre- 
ceding chapters, it will not be difficult to determine for what 
specific causes a divorce ought to be granted to one who has honor- 
ably discharged the marital obligations, from an unfaithful consort. 
It is an axiom of moral philosophy that a right to an end always 
implies a right to the means necessary for attaining it. Whence it 
legitimately follows that whatever unconjugal conduct effectually 
defeats the end and use of marriage is really a divine cause for a 
complete dissolution of the marital ties. 

For reasons hitherto explained, the Creator has said that it is 
not good for man to be alone ; consequently, He does not require 
that man should be perpetually deprived of those elements and 

*Jude. tProv. 11: 11. 



DIVORCE. 461 

forces essential to his happiness and proper development, into a 
divine life. These are the highest privileges of his birth-right, 
which can never be justly forfeited only by his own act, and not 
bv the act of another. To call upon one to sacrifice for a mis- 
creant, the dearest and most essential privileges of life, is the 
hight of human folly. Nor is there any advantage to be gained 
either to the state or individual, by such a sacrifice ; but, on the 
contrary, the greatest public good is the culmination of individual 
happiness and prosperity, springing from a faithful discharge of 
every known duty. 

But a purpose of separation arising from mere inordinate de- 
sires, having their origin in the depravity of the individual, rather 
than in any immoral conduct on the part of the other, should be 
restrained by penal regulations ; for in every such case, there is 
nothing to be gained by a divorce ; but, on the contrary, the 
delinquent becomes more confirmed in evil than before, and con- 
sequently, still less prepared to discharge the marital duties in any 
new relation. Hence, the sanction of such conduct equally tends 
to the injury of the individual and the corruption of society. 

History demonstrates that any undue leniency in the laws of di- 
vorce, is not compatible with a high degree of morals ; and so far from 
adding to the harmony of the marital relation, has always had a con- 
trary effect. ' ; When the Roman matrons became the equal and vol- 
untary companions of their lords, a new jurisprudence was introduc- 
ed, that marriage, like other partnerships, might be dissolved by 
the abdication of one of the associates. In three centuries of 
prosperity and corruption, this principle was enlarged to frequent 
practice and pernicious abuse. Passion, interest, or caprice, sug- 
gested daily motives for the dissolution of marriage ; a word, a 
sign, a message, a letter, the mandate of a freedman, declared the 
separation ; the most tender of human connections was degraded 
to a transient society of profit and pleasure. According to the 
various conditions of life, both sexes alternately felt the disgrace 
and injury : an inconstant spouse transferred her wealth to a new- 
family, abandoning a numerous, perhaps a spurious progeny to the 
paternal care of her late husband : a beautiful virgin might be dis- 
missed to the world, old, indigent and friendless ; but the reluct- 
ance of the Romans, when they were pressed to marriage by Au- 
gustus, sufficiently marks that the prevailing institutions were least 
favorable to males. A specious theory is confuted by this free and 
perfect experiment, which demonstrates that the liberty of divorce 



462 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

does not contribute to happiness and virtue* The facility of sepa- 
ration" would destroy all mutual confidence, and inflame every tri- 
fling dispute ; the minute difference between a husband and stran- 
ger, which might so easily be removed, might still more easily be 
forgotten ; and the matron, rapidly transferred from husband to 
husband, must cease to reverence the chastity of her own per- 
son." * 

" When people understand they must live together," says Lord 
Stowell, " for reasons known to the law, they learn to soften, by 
mutual accommodation, the yoke which they cannot now shake off. 
They become good husbands and wives, from the necessity of re- 
maining husbands and wives ; for necessity is a powerful motive, 
in teaching the duty it imposes. If it were once understood, that, 
upon mutual disgust, married parties may be legally separated, 
many couples, who now pass through the world with mutual com- 
fort — with attention to their common offsprings, and to the moral 
order of civilized society, might have been at this moment living 
in a state of mutual unkindness — in a state of estrangement from 
their common offsprings, and in a state of the most licentious and 
universal immorality. In this case, as in many others, the happi- 
ness of some individuals must be sacrificed to the greater and more 
general good. If people come together, with the extravagant ex- 
pectation, that all are to be halcyon days — the husband conceiving 
that all is to be authority with him, and the wife, that all is to be 
accommodation with her, everybody sees how that must end. If 
they come together with the prospect of happiness, they must come 
with the reflection, that not bringing perfection in themselves, 
they have no right to expect it on the other side — that having 
respectively many infirmities of their own to be overlooked, they 
must overlook the infirmities of each other." 

What God hath joined let not man put asunder. This regula- 
tion has a tendency to promote union of affection and interests, and 
to induce the parties to bear with patience the occasional inconven- 
iences and contentions which may arise. Were divorces generally 
permitted, on the ground of unsuitableness of temper, occasional 
jars, or because they had been temporarily eclipsed by other 
spheres, society would soon be shaken to its centre. Every real or 
supposed insult, or provocation, would be followed out, till it ter- 
minated in the separation of the parties ; families would thus be 
torn into shreds ; the education of the young would be neglected ; 
* Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. 44. 



DIVORCE. 463 

parental authority disregarded ; and a door opened for the preva- 
lence of unbounded licentiousness. Social discords are far more 
frequently the result of the imperfection of the individual than of 
any constitutional incompatibility of the parties. In such cases 
divorce does not reform, but only extends the marital license to the 
injury of a new victim. 

Soon after the commencement of the French Revolution, a law 
permitting divorce was passed by the National Assembly ; and, in 
less than three months from its date, nearly as many divorces as 
marriages were registered in the city of Paris. In the whole 
kingdom within the space of eighteen months, upwards of 
twenty tJwusand divorces iv ere effected; and the state sank into a 
state of mora> degradation, from the effects of which it has never 
yet recovered. This is one of the many practical proofs presented 
before us, of the danger of infringing upon any of the arrangements 
which the Creator has established for the regulation of mankind. 
Irreligion and a disregard of the marital relation are so inseparably 
connected that they are always found in unity of action, in indi- 
viduals and in nations ; and one can never be increased or dimin- 
ished without correspondingly increasing or diminishing the other. 
If this statement be well founded, then it is clearly evident, that 
whoever would escape the evils of family broils and separations, 
must first seek and maintain a conjunction with the Divine prin- 
ciple. Without this, there can be no security against the unhappy 
disputes which so frequently arise in the family relations. 

"It is impossible," says Rev. T. L. Harris, "for Divine order to 
return to this afflicted planet, or for the families of nations which 
constitute the body of Christendom to unfold into a visible mani- 
festation of the kingdom of Heaven, until the laws of the Divine 
government are more thoroughly understood. From the family, 
as from a radical centre and starting point, and indeed a miniature 
city of God in the midst of the moral barbarism of mankind, the 
true civilization is to extend, until it ramifies throughout all human 
institutions. Without the knowledge and the practice of the true 
doctrine of Conjugial Love, it is impossible for the family relation 
to be more than a mere appearance. So long as even ecclesiastics 
teach that marriage is a mere sense-union, so long as they ignore 
the primeval and prospective eternal union of the two-in-one, so 
long as the foundations of the house are laid in the fluctuating 
appearances of matter instead of the permanent realities of spirit, 
the Divine kingdom cannot be ultimated in the material sphere. 



464 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

" Yet we would not be understood as advocating the illegality, 
from a Divine stand-point, of the visible marriage, entered into 
with due respect to the letter of the Gospel. This very external 
marriage, against which so many declaim at the present day, has 
been the bulwark of civilized society. It is, however, the trans- 
itional institution, over which and through which the human family 
is being conducted to the permanent institution, conformed in all 
respects to that order which is pie-existent and universal in the 
Heavens. We hold that all existing legal marriages are binding to 
the end of external life, and, painful as it may be, are yet, by a 
strict sense of duty necessitated to say, that such as violate marital 
order, upon the ground of soul-affinities binding them to other 
parties, are guilty of profanations of the Divine ^nmandment. 
There is but one reason for divorce, that prescribeolby our Lord 
Himself, nor is any evasion or qualification of its strict letter 
justifiable. 

" If we admit that it is morally right, upon grounds of a belief 
that there is a spiritual affinity in other directions, to rupture legal 
ties which already have been established, we open, in the midst of 
society, a pest house from which will spread all manner of con- 
taminations. So long as there is a barrier to divorce, for all causes 
save the one, the hells are prevented from destroying the fabric of 
society ; but, if we once permit the plea of uncongeniality, as a 
sufficient cause for the disruption of the marriage tie, the work of 
eighteen centuries is undone ; society relapses into a state of sub- 
jugation to the infernal world. 

" Here we advance two propositions which are axiomatical, and, 
from the stand-point of the internal sense of the Word, self-evi- 
dent. First, the external marriage contract, hedged in with all 
possible sanctions, and enforced with all social penalties, is the 
only means of restraining unregenerate men and women from the 
tendency to change. Of course we use the word ' unregenerate ' 
in no sectarian sense. All are regenerate in the degree in which, 
prompted by the love of the Lord and the neighbor, predominant 
over the love of self and the world; they shun evils as sins and 
strive to conform both in spirit and in practice to the revealed 
commandments. There is a perpetual tendency in the unregen- 
erate human mind to the formation of extra-marital attachments. 
Precisely in the ratio in which mediatorialism prevails this ten- 
dency becomes pronounced. Disorderly Spiritualism justifies what 
it calls ' Harmonial Marriage,' that is, adultery upon the ground 



DIVORCE. 465 

of spiritual affinity. If, as is claimed, there are more than a mil- 
lion of Spiritualists who are disciples of the Harmonial Philoso- 
phy in our own country, already we see a foundation laid for a 
combined attack upon the most revered moralities of the Christian 
world. In the majority of instances there is a sense of attraction 
and affinity between those who marry. They imagine afterward 
that they were mistaken. If, on the ground of attraction to other 
parties, they have a just claim to divorce in one instance, they 
have the same right as often as they discover a new affinity. 
What does this lead to ? The legal enactment of the corruptions 
of the hells. Do men or women who violate the marriage tie 
because they imagine themselves in soul-affinity with others remain 
constant to their paramours? Let the annals- of criminal juris- 
prudence answer. Commonly there is a terrific reaction from 
fondness to violent antipathy. There are successions of attrac- 
tions upon the part of both sexes. 

" A second proposition may be stated in these words. No unre- 
generate man or woman have any means of arriving at an absolute 
knowledge of who their counterpart may be in the Divine order 
of the future life. The Lord alone reveals that. Conjugial love 
is only possible, in its divine or real sense, between the regenerate. 
It is impossible for it to exist between those in whom selfishness 
remains paramount, whether in the pride of the self-derived intel- 
ligence or in the lusts of the inverted will. Conjugial love is only 
possible in the regenerate, in the ratio of their regeneration, be- 
cause it is the result of the Divine influx into the inmosts of the 
spirit, flowing through orderly forms of vivified affections. 

u But, in the third place, the Lord reveals himself through the 
interiors of those who are to be conjugially united, giving to them 
an inmost consciousness that they are to be made one, only as 

BARRIERS ARE REMOVED TO THEIR ORDERLY UNION. It is an 

infinite mercy which hides the conjugial destiny of the good from 
premature perception. When there is an existing marriage, so 
far as I am able to perceive, it is never in order for either the 
legal husband or the legal wife, to become aware of the fact that 
inmostly they are e^r to belong to other parties. So, when a 
married man is conscious of a strong attraction to either a virgin, 
or a wife, other than his own, and presumes from this attraction 
that she is his real nuptial counterpart, it is treading upon forbidden 
ground. This applies equally to the other sex. It is necessary 



466 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

for the maintenance of order that this should be so. The ground 
is hedged in on every side. 

" There are three other propositions equally important. First, 
Conjugial Love is the especial abhorrence of the hells. To des- 
troy nuptial order in the world is their perpetual endeavor. And 
now mark the subtlety of Evil Spirits. Eighteen centuries of 
Christian culture have imprinted upon the mind of Christendom 
the doctrine that the only marriage is unitary. It is impolitic 
for the hells to advocate, at the outset, a doctrine opposed to 
this ; therefore, through mediums, they commence guardedly, 
assuming a higher morality than that of the gospel, calling the 
external marriage impure, and denouncing all who live in a recog- 
nized nuptial order, without being conscious of internal attractions, 
as guilty of adultery ; stigmatizing all who feel these internal 
attractions, and yet maintain external order in stern resistance of 
their promptings, as violators of the harmonies of ' Holy Nature.' 
Abolishing thus the letter of the commandment, which serves as 
a basis for the spirit to stand upon, they prepare the way for the 
full reign of anti-Christ. 

" A second proposition here comes in. The hells continually 
inflow, so far as they are able, into the minds of married partners, 
seeking to produce a coldness and alienation of spirit. When 
this is accomplished, because man tends to inconstancy in the per- 
verted self-hood, and there are planes of hereditary evil through 
which they can act, they next endeavor to project before his mind 
some feminine image, through that image magnetizing his organi- 
zation. Sometimes, but more rarely, the wife is first influenced 
in this manner. Now with this glaring fact before us; with Evil 
Genii our constant attendants, possessing all the guile of the bottom- 
less pit itself, what right have we, from any stand-point of sound 
reason, to imagine that these extra-marital spiritual attractions are 
other than infatuations ? At this point it is worthy of remark 
that when such attachments are formed, and afterwards the parties 
become legally free to marry, they very seldom avail themselves of 
the permission. 

" Third, all such of the human race |s are mediatorial are 
attacked through human mediums of the hells. Syrens and 
Pythonic Spirits select organizations open to their influence, weav- 
ing through them meshes of enchantment. Life is a constant war- 
fare. Like that enchanted realm, peopled with mirages and delu- 
sions, over whose dim, vague boundaries the Christian, in the alle- 



DIVORCE. 467 

gory, journeyed to ImmanueFs Land, the world through which 
we tread upon our upward pilgrimage is infested, at every point, 
with hallucinations for the senses, with fantasies for the imagina- 
tion, with subterfuges for the reason and with seductions for the 
will. Receiving the transitional marriage as it now exists, guard- 
ing its sacredness and maintaining its authority to the very fullness 
of the letter, safety is found alike for private morality and for 
public righteousness, nor are infractions of its covenant ever justi- 
fiable before God. 

•**:** For the completeness of this statement it is necessary to 
adduce two other propositions. First, by resolutely fixing the 
affections upon the married associate, and remaining true to him or 
her, to the inmost feeling, under all conditions, we attain to the 
highest conjugial order now possible in this world. Let the good 
man, whose wife is cold and unloving, give up his soul to the Lord, 
with a most perfect self devotion. By this means he will become 
mediatorial to the Divine Sphere, which will flow through him, 
quickening the latent conjugial affection in the wifely bosom. If 
she is in a condition to become regenerate, the warm south wind 
of the Divine Love will breathe upon her, till quickened affections 
make glad the home. Wives are often infested by Monastic Spirits, 
causing them to repress, as unholy, the gentle wellings of an in- 
ward tenderness. The Divine Sphere, flowing through the open- 
ness of the husband to the Lord, repulses these, while the wives of 
the Angels breathe in turn a vivifying influence. If the wife is 
tender and the husband alienated, provided there is in his interiors 
a germ capable of vivification, her labors will not be fruitless in 
the Lord. 

" Second, by mutual persistence in this course a most tender 
inter-communion of affections will exist, advancing with every step 
in regeneration, even when the two are of different genius and 
formed for different associations in the eternal life. Aiding each 
other in the pathway of purification, their relationship will gently 
lapse into that of kindred Angels in the social order of the Heavens, 
after the mortal has put on immortality. But if they are, inmostly, 
two in one, the results of regeneration alone can make it evident. 
As self-love is abolished, as the love of the world is overcome in 
the life of universal uses, and the mind clarified to behold the 
essences and primeval forms of the realm of the affections, so thor- 
oughly will one soul permeate the other that they will attain at 



468 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

last a composite consciousness, and so be one essence in two infold- 
in g and interblen diner images." * 

But the command of our Lord was to render unto Caesar the 
things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. 
How far the Church has a right to legislate for Caesar's household 
and to make the Christian religion obligatory upon the children of 
the Devil, is a question open for discussion, and one soon to force 
itself upon public attention. Whoever has watched the tendency 
of the present age cannot fail to have observed that the con- 
test in this country between the Bible and Infidelity is near at 
hand ; and though the Christian believers may feel to be guided 
by the Divine precepts, Caesar's household will struggle for a 
release from all the restraints upon their passions which ecclesias- 
tical institutions have properly imposed upon them. And it is my 
opinion, that God will permit the temporary triumph of the latter, 
as a means of their own destruction, in order to prepare the way 
for an uninterrupted and a universal reign of the Prince of Heaven 
upon the Earth. The Church arid State were w T edded by the 
sword and the same power will divorce them. This, to a large 
extent, has already been accomplished. 

It has been remarked by Bishop Leighton : u Let them that 
have no better home than this world to lay claim to, live here as 
at home, and serve their lusts ; they that have all their portion in 
this life — no more good to look for than what they can catch 
here — let them take their time of the profits and pleasures that 
are here ; but you that have your whole estate, all your riches 
and pleasures, laid up in heaven and reserved there for you, let 
your hearts be there and your conversation there. This is not the 
place of your rest, nor of your delights, unless you w T ould be will- 
ing to change, and have vour good things here as some foolish 
travelers, who spend the estate they should live on at home in a 
little while, leaving it abroad among strangers. Will you, with 
profane Esau, sell your birthright for a mess of pottage — sell 
eternity for a moment, and, for a moment, sell such pleasures as a 
moment of time is more worth than an eternity of the other."f 

But all true philosophy clearly demonstrates, that even in this 
life, without any reference to a future, obedience to Divine Insti- 
tutions secures a far greater amount of real happiness than can ever 
be found in the servitude of sin. It cannot reasonably be sup- 
posed that the Creator has so arranged the constitution of man that 

* Herald of Light, June, 1858. tLeighton's Works, p. 164 



DIVORCE. 469 

obedience and real pleasure are ever, even momentarily, incompat- 
ible with each other. The contrast is not greater between the 
convulsive gasping of death and the quiet breathing of health, than 
between the lust of adultery, where all the powers of mind are 
unstrung and warring with each other, and the conjugial delights 
growing out of that ardent love and sweet confidence which always 
accompany true conjugal fidelity. In one case, as soon as the 
lust is satiated, weak and powerless, it ceases its unlawful clamor- 
ings, and the moral sentiments send down their hot bolts of dis- 
pleasure until the object so recently sought is driven out with 
loathing and disgust, as Amnon exceedingly hated Tamar, w 7 hom 
he had lustfully ravished.* In the other case, there is no warring 
of the elements, respect and confidence wreathe the brow of each, 
and their conjunction more perfectly equalizes the forces of their 
systems and unites them in still closer bonds of union and love. 
And inasmuch as true marriage is the conjunction of two minds in 
love and wisdom, so it is by the mutual reciprocation of these two 
minds that all that is delightful and heavenly in affection and 
thought, words and works, have birth between them. Religion, 
overshadowing the inner sanctuary of the soul, as the cherubim 
the mercy seat, shields from wandering and unhallowed thoughts, 
?nd imparts a delight known only to the obedient to God. 

Much, of late, has been unwisely said and written upon ill- 
assorted marriages — the coming together of parties without any 
social interior fitness for each other. The real cause of these dis- 
cords is entirely overlooked. The difficulty is not so much 
behveen as within the individual parties. But few persons are so 
blessed with interior harmony as to be enabled, at all times, to 
maintain peace within themselves. Nothing is more common than 
to witness in ill-tempered persons, sudden bursts of passion and 
censorious remarks over the works of their own hands — even their 
thoughts throwing them into the greatest possible discord with 
themselves, and with all around them. Can it be expected that 
persons so constituted can live in the mutually self-denying relation 
of husband and wife — a relation which calls for a forbearance with 
each other's infirmities, — without frequent dissatisfaction and occa- 
sional disputes? The remedy is not found in a separation, but in 
establishing, in each, interior harmony. Without this, no degree 
of human perfection can ever satisfy the taste and demands of each 
other. But as each subdues the discords of their own soul, they 
* 2 Samuel 13. 

80 



470 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

find less in the other to disturb the equanimity of their feelings, and 
mutual love and concord are established in the proportion to their 
individual perfection. 

There can be no reasonable doubt that persons coming together 
from mutual choice, in the relation of husband and wife, usually 
possess the requisite conditions of becoming wedded in all the 
social and secular affairs of this life, and perhaps in spirit for the 
next, whenever they shall individually so discipline their own souls 
that they can mutually become receptive of the Divine conjugial 
sphere. The intuitions which first prompted their love, especially m 
woman, come from the conjugial sphere of their souls.; and if not 
too greatly distorted by a vicious life, are true to themselves. But 
the misfortune lies in the inability of this love to maintain its purity, 
in passing through the rubbish between them from two self-discor- 
dant natures. The difficulty, therefore, does not arise from the 
want of interior congeniality, but from the most exterior discords. 
Remove these by an equanimity of temper and the giving up of 
unwarrantable selfishness, and love and confidence soon take the 
place of contention and distrust. The terrible wrangles that now 
so distract the marital relation are the inevitable result of selfish 
and discordant natures, alienated from God, and fermenting hope- 
less and hapless discords between each other. The Creator has 
wisely permitted this, that man may both become conscious of his 
own wretched condition so long as he selfishly seeks his own hap- 
piness, regardless of that of others, and at the same time they are as a 
discipline to one another. The wicked are a sword in the hands 
of the Lord, and not less so in relationships of consanguinity, than 
in the more secular departments of life. 

It may be proper here to add, that I am aware that it has been 
repeatedly affirmed by a class of fanatics whose moral disorders 
have obscured their discretion, that whenever there is a true affin- 
ity of soul, no contentions or dissatisfactions can ever arise between 
them. Starting out with this assumption, they ignore the moral 
obligation of any previously existing relation, and claim the right, 
assumed to be divinely permitted, of becoming conjoined to their 
newly discovered affinity. Many such cases have come under my 
own observation, but they have either been speedily abandoned for 
still others, or perpetuated only in the most discordant condition. 
This result is what any rational person would naturally expect ; 
for their new affinity being more of the flesh than of the spirit, and 
having within themselves no moral basis upon which to maintain 



DIVORCE. 471 

an orderly conjugal life, no sooner has the novelty of this new 
amour subsided, than they relapse into their usual fault-finding and 
censorious habits, and soon become more disgusted with each other 
than with their previous consort. Their wanton experiments have 
been a specious refutation of their theories. Such persons having 
never wedded the principles of goodness and truth within them- 
selves, are continually inclined to form extra-marital and libidinous 
associations. Through this perverted and corrupt condition, they 
introduce insulating spheres between them, by which they become 
divorced, first, in thought, and thence, in their external relation. 
But everywhere we find this one principle true, viz., that as indi- 
viduals or nations lose respect for the marital relation, and are in- 
clined to seek illicit intercourse, the nation verges to destruction, 
and the individual to perdition. 

Parties usually enter into the nuptial relation in consequence of 
a reciprocal attachment, believing that their happiness will be 
enhanced by accepting of the marriage institution as a mutual 
pledge of fidelity to each other, and as a legal bond of union by 
which they may be recognized before the world as husband and 
wife, and their children rendered legitimate. Their attachment is 
the result of excluding all others from the conjugal plane, so that 
there is no insulating sphere between them. While in this con- 
dition, they are so irresistibly drawn to each other, that they are 
impatient to form a perpetual alliance. Any diversity of taste, 
disposition or temperament, are all subordinate to the overpower- 
ing affinity which exists between them. Faults are easily over- 
looked, and any real or fancied injury readily forgiven ; for they 
soon learn, by painful experience, that to be disjoined by any 
irreconciliation, is to produce a degree of suffering which they are un- 
willing, long to brook. So long as each, in both spirit and act, are 
true to their nuptial vows, this happy state of things continues 
undiminished, and the whole forces of their natures constantly 
tend to unite in a still closer and more interior union. The 
longer such parties remain together, the deeper and more intense 
becomes their attachment, and the more harmonious their outward 
lives. For the Creator has so arranged the constitution of the 
sexes, that the longer they cohabit together, at the exclusion of 
all others, the more perfectly they blend with each other. No 
separation is ever sought or desired until the intervening sphere 
of a third party has rent asunder the connubial tie. Wherefore, 
separations are always the result of miscreant conduct on the part 



472 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

of one or both parties, by which a disintegrating influence is 
allowed to intercept between them. Were they to form a thou- 
sand alliances, the same misfortunes would be liable to attend them 
all, until they learn to live in fidelity to each other, by ceasing to 
look and lust after forbidden fruit. 

In view, therefore, of the innumerable evils which result, both 
to the parties and to society, it becomes highly important that some 
judicious means be employed to effect a re-conjunction of the 
parties, if possible, before a divorce is granted. This not unfie- 
quently could be effected by placing them in such a relation to 
each other as would preclude all other spheres. I somewhere saw 
it stated that a king passed a decree that any parties applying for a 
divorce should be imprisoned together for three days in one room 
containing only one bed and one chair, and no one allowed to speak 
to them during that time, their food being passed to them through 
an apperture of the door ; and if, at the expiration of three days, 
they desired to separate, the divorce was granted. But the narra- 
tive concluded by saying that after this forced intimate association, 
none of the parties were found willing to separate, and most of them 
manifested strong attachment for each other ever afterwards. This 
plan was based upon the deepest philosophical principle. Their im- 
prisonment together, while all others were excluded, afforded an 
opportunity for the reunion of spheres rent asunder by a stronger 
magnetic force. 

And here I cannot refrain from remarking, that, in domestic 
difficulties, the interference of intermeddling advisers is usually dis- 
astrous to both parties, and not unfrequently becomes the final 
cause of separation. No third person should ever be admitted 
into the sanctuary of the conjugal relation, only under the most 
extreme emergency ; and then only such as are, to a large extent 
at least, delivered from their own evils. It is sacred ground which 
should not be trod with unholy sandals. A disaffected wife, though 
she may be mainly at fault, calls upon some sympathizing friend 
and unbosoms her sorrows, reveals family secrets, awakens the 
sympathy and not unfrequently lust of her listener who, uncon- 
sciously goes out to her under the influence of these emotions, 
even though he may be honest in purpose, which, alas, too fre- 
quently is not the case ; and by this means adds the whole influence 
of his sphere as an intervening obstruction to her reunion with 
her husband, notwithstanding he may counsel her to forget or sur- 
mount her grievances. The influence of his admonitions are weak 



DIVORCE. 473 

in comparison to the weight of his magnetic sphere upon her. Too 
frequently the friendly counselor becomes the paramour of the 
disaffected wife. 

Previous to becoming acquainted with the laws of mind, having 
written several articles upon the deplorable consequences of the 
severing of family ties, frequent appeals were made to me for 
counsel upon this subject. Experience soon taught me that the 
interest I took in attempting to reestablish harmony and perpetuate 
the relation, in several cases, became the ultimate means of defeat- 
ing my desire. The wife finding no concord at home, her affect- 
ions were ready to fasten upon any one that offered her sympathy, 
or manifested any interest in her welfare. Frequent calls would be 
made by her to discuss different topics pertaining to her marital 
discord, at the same time holding herself positive to her husband 
while negative to her adviser, the difficultv sought to be remedied 
was grievously augmented. 

But in whatever manner we may view the social relations of 
life, whether conjugal or secular, we find them beset with evil on 
every hand ; and the more so in the ratio as we yield to the tempter. 
Sin has found its way into every department of the human consti- 
tution, and corrupted every human relation. Thus we find our- 
selves infested within and surrounded without by moral disorder. 
And the question is not so much, how shall we secure the greatest 
amount of pleasure amid this universal derangement, as by what 
means shall we most effectually rid ourselves of the conditions by 
which these disorders can afflict us ? Let us not close our eyes to 
the fact that there is everywhere a tendency to a reciprocal action, 
of the evil as well as of the good. Each generic species in every 
department of creation responds to their kind. The sponge is not 
more absorbent of water, than a vicious man of evil. The con- 
junction of the evils without, with those within, give birth to other 
groups, and these to still others, increasing in a geometrical pro- 
gression until, like the locusts of Egypt, they consume every good 
and shut out the light of heaven. If it be true that " the fear of 
the Lord tendeth to life ; and he that hath it shall abide satisfied, 
and shall not be visited with evil," * we arrive, by an easy and 
direct pathway, to the fruition of that state in which our own evils 
become subordinate, and we enfolded within the protective sphere 
of Him who has once overcome them in the flesh, and can shield 
us from their ingress. 
* Proverbs 19: 23. 



474 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Thus situated, life should be a perpetual warfare with sin, and 
not with each other. To overcome this insidious foe, requires all 
the resisting forces of our nature, backed up by the forces of God. 
Nor should we waste our time in useless disputations. Even 
with the greatest diligence, life is too short to overcome all that we 
could wish ; and real happiness, either here or hereafter, can be 
ours only in ratio as we are delivered from evil. And inasmuch as 
this is the material plane where we sow the seeds from which we are 
to reap an eternal harvest, how infinitely important that we guard 
every thought and act, and see that we do not sow to the flesh which 
can yield only corruption ; but to the spirit from which we are sure to 
reap life everlasting. Moreover, so long as we have evil within, 
it becomes a discoloring medium through which we look upon the 
conduct of others ; too often causing us to distrust their purest 
motives and impeach their best acts. First wed the heart and the 
head in divine love and wisdom, so that there shall be no antaof- 
onism within ; then, and not till then, will the two souls blend in 
the sweetest and most harmonious accord. Until then there are 
many concessions to be made and much to be forgiven. In a 
thousand ways the allurements of sin will entice from the path of 
true wisdom ; and as often as this happens, the other should kindly 
admonish and use every laudable means to reclaim the wanderer. 

But the great mistake of life consists in marrying for sensual 
pleasures rather than for a religious discipline. Their union is 
only upon the lower plane of life, beset by every moral disorder, 
which are too often fearfully augmented from the want of a proper 
understanding of their duties and relations to each other. They 
wed the feelings rather than discretion ; and failing to find the 
happiness they anticipated, they wage perpetual war upon each 
other. The husband, straining every nerve to sustain the rapidly 
accumulating expense of a family, takes a commercial view of the 
matter, weighs his enjoyments in the balance of profit and loss, and 
fancies that he is paying too dear for all he receives ; in the mean- 
time overlooking the far more important fact that the wife is given, 
not so much to administer to his carnal pleasures, as to become a 
help-meet on a higher plane for the removal of his disorders, by 
which she becomes instrumental in his preparation for a better world. 
The wife beset by the cares of a family; and more than all, over- 
burdened with evils absorbed into her own system, from an unregen- 
erated husband, becomes dissatisfied, peevish and censorious, con- 
trasting others of whom she knows less, with her husband, and 



DIVORCE. 475 

fancies that her lot is worse than usually falls to woman. Mistaken 
in her ideas of life, she expects that like the useless house plant, she 
is to be protected and nourished in indolence for her fancied 
sweetness and apparent beauty, when alas, too often, she is but 
a thorn in the flesh generating every species of discord. 

Woman was the first to lead man into sin and suffering, and it 
is her prerogative to aid by suffering to lead him out. God 
requires this at her hands, and when she proves herself unfaithful, 
she is found wanting, and tekel is written upon the tablets of her 
soul. Just here lies the great secret of her successful return to 
Eden purity. There is more required at her hands than to luxu- 
riate upon the fostering and pampering care of the over-indulgence 
of a fond and doting husband, The stern realities of a fallen 
life are upon her, a condition which she has been instrumental in 
introducing into the world ; and it is required at her hands that 
she help bear the burdens of an apostate race. She was first in 
the transgression, and not divorced from her husband, but together 
they were driven from the garden, and she must be the first to 
volunteer to bear the consequences of her sins if she would ever 
hope to return. Without this, she will ever remain bankrupt in 
faith, in morals, in God. 

The principles involved in the relation of husband and wife are 
all that pertain to immortal beings; — the dynamical forces by 
which God himself moves and creates. The order in which they 
are maintained in this life cannot fail to have a most important 
bearing upon the next. If we would hope to ever attain to nup- 
tial bliss in heaven, we must faithfully discharge every duty per- 
taining to our conjugal relation on earth. Sad and pitiable as this 
relation frequently appears to be, it is made so only by sin, and is 
a needful discipline to prepare us for a better. Those who drink 
this cup must take alike its bitter and its swe f :t ; but by a proper 
use of each, the compound will be found to be easily administered ; 
the sweet enhancing every pleasure and magically giving birth to 
delectable joys which could never be obtained without it; the bitter 
will purge us of our evils. Then, as rational men and women, let 
us accept it, thanking Heaven alike for its pleasures and its dis- 
ciplines. 



CHAPTER X 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 

Health may be regarded as the standard condition of the living 
being, or that state in which the parts are sound, well organized 
and disposed, and in which they all freely perform their natural 
functions. This condition cannot be long continued without a cor- 
responding healthy action in the moral constitution. 

Disease may be regarded as any deviation from this standard, 
and may exist either consciously or unconsciously to the individual; 
for the external consciousness takes cognizance of disease, only 
through pain and perceptible morbid action ; but the most virulent 
diseases usually produce no physical suffering until they have 
passed through all their various stages, and have reached their final 
crisis in the organic structure — the pain being the culmination 
rather than the commencement of diseased action. The condi- 
tions of the disease may be of long continuance, and can frequent- 
ly be traced back through successive generations ; but its painful 
action upon the plane of the body is comparatively of short dura- 
tion. In infectious diseases, for example, the virus is in a state of 
active operation from the moment it is taken into the system, until 
it has passed through all the various stages of the malady, though 
days or weeks may elapse before it produces conscious suffering to 
the patient. 

In the present essay, it will be my object more particularly to 
point out the specific causes of disease, and to trace them to their 
ultimate effects, rather than to treat of the effects abstractly from 
the cause. In the daily avocations of my profession, I was con- 
tinually reminded of the fact that in the treatment of diseases, the 
physician is called upon to contend with the ultimate results of hu- 
man infirmities, rather than the causes from which they spring ; 
and that his success does not depend so much upon his skill in the 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 477 

administration of drugs, as in the psychological influence he is able 
to exert upon the patient. The drugs spend their force chiefly 
upon the mucous surfaces, the nervous and muscular fibres, whereas 
the psychological impression strikes farther back upon the plane of 
causes which more immediately control the action of the organic 
structure. Important as it is, that the physician should be thorough- 
ly acquainted with the human structure, the relation of its 
parts, and the action of drugs upon the different functions by which 
life is sustained ; it is still more important that he should be ac- 
quainted with the fact of the potent influence of one mind over 
another, the positive and controlling action of the mind over the 
body, and the law of connection by which a commerce in the vital 
forces of the human constitution is maintained. 

In. this consists the real skill of the physician ; for by such 
knowledge he is enabled by his own psychological influence to 
assist his patient in mentally maintaining a positive relation to the 
disease, and to bring around him persons, whose peculiar tempera- 
ments and constitutions are best calculated to make up for the 
waste of vital forces caused by the crisis of the disease, and at the 
same time to administer such druo;s as the exigencies of the case 
may seem to demand. 

I shall have but little to say in reference to diseases in the sense 
in which they are treated of in medical works ; hence shall not 
intrude upon the province of the physician in any of their pro- 
fessional duties under the existing order of things. My province 
will be the plane of causes ; the medical profession is that of effects. 

The time has arrived when we must cease to look upon diseases 
as having their origin in the miasmata of the atmosphere, the impu- 
rities of the blood, in an enfeebled, or in an inflamed organic action. 
These are but the phenomena of diseases and not the diseases 
themselves. True, there may be many exciting causes by which 
the organic structure may be provoked into a diseased action ; but 
these could have no effect upon the constitution were it not first 
weakened by the action of interior forces — there must be some 
spiritual cause to which the physical malady holds a definite rela- 
tion ; for there can be no action upon the material plane without a 
correlation of the spiritual and natural forces. We might as well 
undertake to prove that the body could continue to live without 
the soul, as to show that disease could find access to the body 
without a corresponding condition in the spirit, for the spirit is the 
positive force, and the action of the body is but an expression of 



478 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the spirit's condition. This condition may have originated in the 
germ from which the individual derived his existence, or it may- 
have been acquired by his own conduct. In either case, it persist- 
ently seeks, and is sure, sooner or later, to attain an ultimate ex- 
pression. The speediness with which the disease may manifest 
itself will depend upon its nature and the conditions with which it 
is obliged to contend. There may days, months, years, or even 
centuries or more, elapse between the primitive cause and the 
ultimate effect. Its progress may be retarded, but it cannot be pre- 
vented, and it may so impair the vitality of the germ as to cause 
it to run through successive generations before it spends its force. 
Hence, the fact of hereditarv disease offers no argument against the 
principles here set forth ; for though the patient may not be the 
original offender, the germ from which he has immediately derived 
his existence, bears with it the disorders of the parent ; the forces 
of which attract corresponding material elements, and that too be- 
fore the individual has time to arrive at the discretion necessary to 
enable him to so modify their action, as to save himself from their 
disastrous effects. In fact, the hereditary forces largely control 
even the tendencies of the will. 

Active conditions invariably flow from the positive to the nega- 
tive ; and as the will is more positive than the physical energies, 
all diseased action constantly tends from the centre to the circum- 
ference — from the will to the ultimate plane of the body. It is 
in this way that it becomes expelled, through morbific agencies, 
from the system. The forces which beget tuberculous and pur- 
rulent matter, and induce morbid excretion and secretion, and 
inflammatory and typhoid conditions, are generated in the will, and 
induce in the organic structure conditions that are a counterpart to 
themselves. Objective circumstances or influences may greatly 
aid in accelerating the development of subjective causes ; but they 
cannot create them, for a creation requires the action of two oppo- 
site but correlative forces, one of which must exist within the 
human constitution. Inasmuch as mind is positive to matter, cure 
the morbific, conditions within, and the individual becomes proof 
against every morbid condition from without. The principle here 
under consideration will be better understood by the following 
syllogism : 

Every cause must necessarily spring from some active force, and 
as force is indestructible, though convertible in its mode of 
action, every effect is but the metamorphosis and conservation of 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 479 

an existing force. The force being stored up in the effect, the 
effect in its turn becomes the proximate cause to an effect on an 
inferior plane, and this, the cause of another effect, and so on, vary- 
ing its mode of action on each substratum between the primary 
cause and the ultimate effect. But any new property which the 
force may take on in any of its metamorphoses will be transmitted 
through any succeeding effect until it is overpowered by a counter- 
acting principle. These properties are the receptacles and reactive 
plane of forces corresponding to their conditions. 

I here use the terms principle and property in a correlative 
sense ; principle to designate direction or faculty ; property to 
designate the operation or capacity. The union of the two estab- 
lishes a new force, or rather forms a new condition through 
which a force previously existing changes its mode of action. This 
is what we may denominate the law of Discrete Degrees, by 
which we mean that one is formed from another, and by means of 
the second, a third, or composite, and so on. Notwithstanding 
each degree is distinct from every other, the fundamental principles 
of all are the same, for every degree is the conducting medium of 
forces from a higher to a lower, so that the inferior is immediately 
dependent upon its proximate superior for the character of its forces, 
— the difference in their mode of operation being the result of 
different combination and arrangement of elements. 

The principle here under consideration, is the most important 
that can demand the attention of man, for it lays at the foundation 
of all philosophical exposition of disease, and when properly under- 
stood and observed will enable mankind to avoid the most of human 
ills. That I may not here be misunderstood, I will present an 
illustration from nature, and in so doing shall run counter to a 
generally accepted astronomical speculation. The Sun and the 
Earth are reciprocally dependent orbs, and it is only in their 
correlative relation that they become the media of the force of 
reproduction and of the principles and properties of light and heat. 
What is true of the Sun and the Earth is also true of the Earth 
and the Moon, — it is a continuation of the same forces into another 
discrete and subordinate plane of correlative action. 

Xow, it is a hypothesis of astronomers, and one, so far as I know, 
in which they all agree, that every planet in our solar system, both 
primary and secondary, derives its light and heat, and consequent- 
ly its productive properties, immediately from the Sun. I have 
lono- been of the opinion that this hypothesis is wholly unfounded; 



480 THE CONSTITUTION OP MAN. 

and the law of Discrete Degrees is one of the chief pillars in sus- 
taining the correctness of this opinion. This law would assure us 
that each planet is the illuminating medium of its own satellites ; 
and that the Sun itself being governed by the same law, is de- 
pendent upon a still more central sun for the positive forces which 
render it a pivotal orb to our solar system. 

It is not here pretended to say that the Moon is not made visible 
to us by virtue of the Sun's influence ; but this by no means proves 
that the atmosphere of the Moon, like that of the Earth, is ren- 
dered luminous to its inhabitants by the immediate rays of the Sun. 
We occupy an intermediate position between the two, so that while 
we behold the direct rays of the Sun on the one hand, we can 
also perceive their effect upon the Moon on the other. Being 
within our own atmosphere through which the Sun is made visible 
to us by the blending of its sphere with that of the Earth near the 
Earth's surface, and thus in the direct current of the positive forces, 
we can take observations in both directions, perceive from whence 
the influence is derived and note its results ; for effects can be really 
observed only from a higher stand-point than that on which they 
occur. In Discrete Degrees causes do not produce effects by 
continuity but discretely — the cause being one thing but the effect 
quite another, as the heavens exist, and from them the material 
universe. Wherefore on the principle that the lower can never 
fully comprehend the higher, causes cannot be perceived from 
effects ; but effects from causes. * 

Could we travel beyond the boundaries of our atmosphere, the 
Sun would become invisible even to us ; for the atmosphere is the 
medium, not only of conjunction between the two orbs ; but of 
sight. The Moon does not sustain the same correlation to the 
Sun, but to the Earth, so that while she reflects the Sun's rays 
from the outer surface of her atmosphere, she absorbs the rays of 
the Earth which blend with her negative element, and illuminate 

* There is here a wide distinction to be made between discrete and continuous de- 
grees. Discrete degrees is where, decendingly, one thing is formed from another, 
as the body from the spirit, the spirit from the Creator ; ascendingly, where exte- 
rior things advance to interior things, and thus to inmost. The atmosphere is the 
receptacle of heat and light, and these of love and wisdom ; the Word is the re- 
ceptacle of Divine Humanity, the Divine Humanity of the Supreme Divinity, the 
primary planets control the secondary, the Sun the primary, — all these being dis- 
tinct or discrete from each other. But continuous degrees is where one merges into 
the other, as light into shade, heat into cold, hard into soft, etc. The former may 
be denominated degrees of altitude, one being above or iuterior to another; the 
latter, degrees of latitude, being of the same plane. 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 481 

her atmosphere, in the same manner as our atmosphere is illumin- 
ated by the Sun. It is by reflecting the Sun's sphere rather than 
by absorbing it, that she presents a brilliant appearance to us ; 
whereas it is in virtue of absorbing or appropriating the Earth's 
sphere that light and heat are produced in the inner strata of her 
atmosphere ; and by which her productive capacity is maintained.* 
By keeping in view these fundamental principles which appertain 
to universal creation, it will become comparatively easy to under- 
stand the cause and nature of disease. 

All disordered action, in whatever department of nature it may 
be found, is the want of equilibrium between the positive and nega- 
tive forces. The extreme boundaries of these forces are Nature on 
the one hand and Divinity on the other ; and the only insulator 
between them is the evils springing from the freedom of the human 
will. Man is an epitome of the two ; his spiritual nature within 
corresponds to the Divine Being in whose image he was made ; 
while his external body corresponds to the material universe of 
which he forms a part, and his conscience is the conjunctive 
medium, or the moral atmosphere, between the Divine and the 
Natural ; but this atmosphere is the sphere of the will, so that its 
quality is determined by the will's condition. 

Such being the case man possesses subjectively the several 
degrees which objectively characterize creation. The extreme 
boundaries of his constitution are the moral sentiments on the one 
hand and the sexual instincts on the other — the sentiments bein^ 
jjositive to the instincts in an orderly ; but negative in a disorderly 
relation. These constitute the periphery of his nature, so that 
every other faculty and capacity are embraced within them, and 
their correlative action determines the quality of every other mental 
and moral condition, and these, in their turn, the laws of life and 
health. Moreover, the will being the material principle of the 
mind, its quality, while connected with the forces of matter, through 
the body, which is its immediate correlative on the negative side 
during the natural life, determines the individual character for- 
ever ; for, after severing its connection with the body, it is deprived 
of the ultimate discrete degree from which it can react, so that its 
character becomes unalterably fixed — the plane of matter no 
longer forming any part of the human constitution. 

It will be one of the chief ends of this essay to show that the 
properties of disease, — using the term properties to designate a 
* See the Chapter on Marriage as a Principle. 



482 



THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 



capacity, — have their origin in the perversions of the human will, 
and that they become impregnated by a correlative principle of 
the moral sentiments by which they are rendered active in the 
organic structure. But before we proceed to show in what man- 
ner this is effected, it will first become necessary to show that there 
is a specific and definite coopposite relation between the higher and 
the lower faculties of the human constitution, so that the health 
and condition of one is as the health and condition of the other. 
If, for example, we investigate the physiological conditions of a 
tree, we shall find, in every instance, that the number of the 
branches, and the vigor of their growth, depend upon a corres- 
ponding number of roots and fibres, and their healthy action ; and 
that any fibre destroyed in the root, destroys a correlative branch 
in the top ; but a destruction of any portion of the top does not 
necessarily destroy a corresponding portion of the root ; but, on 
the contrary, there is a continual tendency to repair the injured 
part. The following diagram will also show that the top and the 
root definitely correspond to each other. 




THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 483 

The same law holds good among some of the lower species 
of animals. " Thus in the Star Fish, instances are known of 
the loss of one, two, three, and even four rays, which have been 
gradually reproduced ; the whole process appearing to be attend- 
ed with little inconvenience to the animal. In some species 
of insolated polypifera, such as the common Sea-Anemone, and 
Hydra, (fresh water polype,) this power of reproduction is much 
greater. The Hydra may be cut into a large number of pieces, 
(it is said as many as forty,) of which every one shall be capa- 
ble of developing itself in time into a perfect polype. The sea 
anemone, when divided, either transversely or vertically, still 
lives ; and each half produces the other, so as to reform the 
perfect animal."* In the higher order of the animal kingdom, 
the nutritive process is from the centre to the circumference ; 
but in the vegetable, from the extremities to the centre; and 
the nearer the approach to the vegetable kingdom, the more 
equally the nutritive powers are distributed throughout the organic 
structure, so that in the lower orders of organized life, any portion 
of that structure contains sufficient nutritive apparatus to reproduce 
the injured parts : for here the forces of nutrition have not yet 
reached the centre, but are only merging toward it. Hence, one of 
the chief distinctive characteristics marking the boundary between 
the animal and the vegetable kingdoms, is the presence or absence 
of a stomach, or an internal cavity, for the reception of food, — 
the stomach being the receptacle of the material elements from 
which the organic structure derives its nourishment. 

In the vegetable kingdom the roots and the branches may be 
said to sustain the same relation to the trunk that the heart and 
lungs do to the animal structure — the roots* being the agents or 
instruments of absorbing and circulating the material elements 
from the earth ; the branches the receptacles of the vital princi- 
ple from the atmosphere, and it is by the copulative association of 
these that the force of growth is induced. Disease and decay are 
the result of a loss of the balance of power between these two 
principles. But in the animal kingdom the order is reversed, so 
that the vital principles proceed from the centre to the circumfer- 
ence. The periphery of the human constitution is the animal 
instinct on the one hand, and the moral sentiments on the other. 
The most universal and final ultimate of all the instincts is that of 
reproduction, and this forms the ultimate basis from which the 

* Carpenter's Human Phys. page 44. 



484 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

sentiments react, so that, on the material side it embraces every- 
thing in the human constitution. For as we cannot have three 
things without first having one and two, and as the one and the two 
are embraced within the three, so the ultimate principle embraces 
all there is of the more interior principles — it is a final culmina- 
tion of all the forces of which they are composed, as three is the 
culmination of one and two, or, ten of nine. Hence, every con- 
ceivable condition of the individual constitution is embraced within 
the sexual instincts and re-begets its own condition. 

The correlative of reproduction, and the highest in the group of 
the moral sentiments, is Faith, or a holy reverence for the Lord. 
It is from this hitherto undiscovered truth that chastity and the sanc- 
tity of religion, like positive and negative action, are always in 
exact ratio to each other. Nor can a faith in God ever become 
stronger than a love of the right — goodness and truth are insepa- 
rablv wedded. Faith — usin> this term to designate the highest 
principle in the human constitution — is based in a love of the 
neighbor ; a love of the neighbor is based in the understanding ; 
the understanding in the will. On the spiritual side, everything 
was designed to converge and focalize itself into faith or the princi- 
ple of religion which conjoins man to his Creator ; but, on the 
natural side this convergence is toward the seminal forces in order 
to give birth to new individual entities — Creator and re-creation. 
Hence, faith (a love to the Lord) is formed of the highest and 
purest principles of the mind ; the seminal fluids of the finest and 
purest elements of the body, so that as religion is the culmination 
of the spiritual forces, conjugality or reproduction is the culmina- 
tion of natural forces. One is a counterpart to the other, and it is 
only by their coopposite action that the individual can maintain a 
healthy moral and physical condition. 

The pivotal or central principle of the individual is his will, love 
or affection. This is the esse of his being, and the fountain from 
which springs every other characteristic quality. It cannot, at the 
same time, send forth both bitter and sweet waters. The correla- 
tive of this is the understanding, wisdom or thought. The united 
action of the will and the understanding — in their orderly or 
regenerated condition — give birth, on the natural side, to use ; on 
the spiritual side, to a love of the neighbor ; these, in their turn, 
embracing all there is involved in the copulation of the will and 
the understanding, give birth to Faith — a love to the Lord — on 
the spiritual side, and to the elements of reproduction on the 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 



485 



natural. The principle here under consideration will be better 
understood by the following diagram : 



,^, ot Love toj jj e 




giality, or Re^° 



The correlative principle from the centre to the circumference in the three 
discrete degrees, are : First, Will and Understanding ; Second, Goodness and 
Charity; Third, Conjugiality and God. Hence, a true conjugial relation and 
infidelity can never co-exist in the same individual; for Conjugiality springs 
from Goodness, Goodness from a regenerate Will, a regenerate Will from the 
Lord. 



Now, there can be no thought without affection, no charity 
without goodness, no conjugiality without God. These are cor- 
relative or coopposite principles ; and the natural should be gov- 
erned by the directing force of the spiritual. The inversion of 
these is from the circumference to the centre, for evil first appeals 
to the outer instead of to the inner life — to the feelings instead of 
the judgment. First, lust takes the place of conjugiality, and this 
induces a love of nature instead of God ; second, evil takes the 
place of goodness, which induces a love of self rather than of the 
neighbor ; third, hatred in the will, which gives birth to sophistry 
rather than philosophy in the understanding. This perversion 
may be induced by any selfish influence of sufficient strength to 
arouse the natural into a positive relation to the spiritual. In every 
such case the natural becomes the controlling principle and uses 
the spiritual only to devise means and ways for the accomplishment 
of its purposes. In this consists the incorporation of the principles 



486 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

of hell within the individual — he ruthlessly plunges himself head- 
long from heaven (for heaven consists in the orderly rule of the 
natural by the spiritual,) into the lake of his own perverted condi- 
tion, where lust forever blows the unquenchable fires of his own 
insatiable appetites. 

From what has now been said, it will be seen that as the en- 
cephalon is the centre of nervous action, the health and strength 
of the moral sentiments depend upon the power and healthy ac- 
tivity of the animal instincts, in the same manner that the branches 
of a plant or tree depend upon the roots which sustain them. So 
far, therefore, from its being a misfortune to possess strong animal 
instincts, they are an indispensable basis to the higher order of re- 
ligious life, which, like the unruly horse, only need to be brought 
into subjection to the higher faculties in order to render individ- 
uals wise and useful in proportion to their strength and activity. 
In fact we can scarcely conceive of a greater mistake, than to at- 
tempt to weaken the force of the emotional constitution ; for in 
the degree in which this is effected, we weaken every manly qual- 
ity. Enervation is not to be sought, but an energized activity in 
the right ; and this derives its strength from the emotions. The 
lion and the lamb — strength and innocence — should lie down 
together. In this consists the strength and perfection of character. 

Moreover, the vitality and the energy of the organic structure de- 
pend upon the size of the base of the brain. Taking the orifice 
of the ear as the centre, the posterior portion of the brain furnishes 
the stimulus to mental and physical energy, while that immediately 
anterior to the ear, governs the vitality of the system. Hence we 
find that those who are short in the transverse diameter, that is from 
ear to ear, always have a spare form, while those who are wide in 
that portion of the brain, almost invariably become corpulent, if 
they live to mature age. Combativeness and Destructiveness, ob- 
noxious as they are when desecrated to unlawful use, may be classed 
among the most noble qualities of man when they shield and defend 
the right. And Amativeness when it prostitutes the soul, trails in 
the dust the highest qualities of the mind, and causes the individ- 
ual to turn his aspirations from God to nature, how loathsome and 
beastly it appears ; but when it weds man and woman in holy use, 
while they reflect the image of their Creator and cooperate with 
Him in peopling the earth, and thence the heavens, with immortal 
beings bearing the divine image, it becomes the correlative of the 
highest principles of the human constitution. 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 487 

Creations can originate from no other source than from divine 
love by divine wisdom in divine use ; hence prolifications are but 
the continuations of the divine creative principle — the conserva- 
tion, in human ultimates, of the creative force. The ineffable 
delights of conjugial love are solely from a cooperation of the indi- 
vidual with the Divine Author from which they spring. " So far 
as any one loves to grow wise, for the sake of genuine uses, so far 
he is in the vein and potency of conjugial love ; and so far as he is in 
these two, so far he is in the delight thereof." These delights in 
their first principles are imperceptible ; but they become more and 
more perceptible as they descend by degrees from the primeval prin- 
ciples of love and wisdom into the plane of the body. They enter 
by degrees from the religious faculties into the interiors of a man's 
mind, from thence into its exteriors, from thence into the bosom, 
and from the bosom into the genital region. 

This brief but self-evident statement completely establishes the 
truth of the position here set forth, viz. : that the reproductive 
instincts are the coopposite principle of the religious faculties, so 
that the perversion of one is as the perversion of the other, — 
that religion and sexual impurity can never coexist in the same indi- 
vidual. The connubial relations are Charity and Faith, Lust 
and Infidelity. Nor can the religious life ever rise higher than the 
social life. And here a most important truth presents itself; 
namely, as whatever affords any degree of delight is naturally accept- 
ed as good, without divine instruction, there would be no legislation 
against the undue action of the carnal appetites ; and thus left to 
uninterruptedly seek impure gratifications, they would speedily 
become so perverted as to destroy all perception of good and truth, 
and would establish such a plane of inversion as would lay the foun- 
dation for the spiritual destruction of all mankind. Even with the 
Divine Word in our midst and the healthy regulations of society, 
many are so bewildered as to scarcely know the right from the 
wrong ; others disbelieve in the existence of evil, thus demonstrat- 
ing that they have so long disregarded the Divine precepts as to 
either greatly impair, or to obliterate their moral perceptions. 

I have hitherto used the terms Love and Will as nearly synony- 
mous, inasmuch as they are the essential life-principle of the indi- 
vidual. But while this is true, love, strictly speaking, is the 
essential principle of the will, and resides in it as the understand- 
ing does in the love, — the love and the will being the first conjugal 
principle of the natural life, and correspondential of the positive 



488 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

and negative action of the individual cell which constitutes the 
first principles of all cellular growth. So also upon the spiritual 
side, the terms wisdom and understanding are used in the same 
manner, though wisdom, strictly speaking, resides in the under- 
standing, and becomes its impregnating principle ; for there can 
be no true understanding without wisdom, any more than there 
can be wisdom without love, or a negative without, at the same 
time, a positive action by which it is sustained, — they are recipro- 
cally dependent upon each other. Everything tends from the 
centre to the circumference, and the primeval centre of everything 
has a two-fold action, which may be well illustrated by throwing 
a pebble into a body of water, the ripple which it c%ises equally 
extends itself in every direction ; so as it widens on one side, its 
correlative equally widens on the other, and the outer ripple em- 
braces every other within it. 

The conditions or primeval causes of disease take their rise in 
the will, (using the term will as including love, its immediate 
essential principle,) and the seminal ■ fluid is the medium of its 
pervading the organic structure. This fluid having its origin from 
the blending of the most interior love and wisdom, it contains the 
conditions of both, and, as a fountain, supplies the elements from 
which both rationality and the organic structure maintain their 
existence. It is, therefore, the essence or sustainer of the moral, 
mental, and physical qualities ot the individual. Its purity and 
abundance constitute all real manhood, and the vitality of the 
organic structure ; its impurity and deficiency induce idiocy and 
physical decay. 

And here it is proper to more fully remark, thfct no evil is more 
disastrous to the physical and corrupting to the moral constitution 
— none which so soon destroys the body and so thoroughly 
debauches the soul — as an undue waste of the prolific principle 
and a disorderly use of the sexual functions. This principle being, 
as it is, the medium of conjunction between the soul and the body, 
and the sustainer of the vital forces of one and the moral qualities 
of the other, its expenditure weakens the vital force of every 
organic function, and its disorderly use destroys every moral princi- 
ple in the ratio of its disorderly use. Disastrous as its waste is, 
even in marital life by a too frequent use of the marital rights, it is 
far worse in illicit and promiscuous commerce ; for where the 
appetite is naturally indulged, that is in marriage, the necessary 
energy is supplied by the nervous stimulus of its natural accom- 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 489 

paniment of love, which prevents the injury which would otherwise 
arise from the increased expenditure of animal power; and in 
like manner also, the function being in itself gratified, this personal 
attachment performs the further necessary office of preventing im- 
mediate indulgence, bv diverting the attention through the numer- 
ous other sources of sympathy and enjoyment which simultaneously 
open to tho mind. But when the appetite is irregularly gratified, 
that is, in fornication, for want of healthful vigor of true love 
through which the individual becomes potent by an influx from the 
divine which descends into every orderly relation, its energies become 
exhausted ; and from the want of the numerous other sympathetic 
sources of enjoyment in true love, in similar thoughts, common 
pursuits, and above all, in common holy hopes, the more gross 
animal gratifications of lust are resorted to with unnatural frequency, 
and thus its powers become still further exhausted, and, therefore, 
still more unsatisfying ; while, at the same time, a habit is thus 
created, and these jointly cause an increased craving ; and the still 
greater deficiency in the satisfaction experienced in its indulgence 
further, continually, ever in a circle, increases — the habit, demand, 
indulgence, consequent exhaustion, diminished satisfaction, and 
again demand, — until the mind and body alike become disorganized. 
Whatever felicity there is in any department of the human con- 
stitution, whether upon the plane ofWthe interior or exterior con- 
sciousness, high or low, spiritual or natural, it is freighted upon the 
prolific principle. If we would enjoy the social relation, this en- 
joyment depends upon the abundance and healthy action of this 
element.. If we would devoutly offer our adorations to God, we 
can do so only in the ratio of its potency and purity. It is the 
vital force of all we think, of all we do, of all we are — body and 
mind are sustained by it. Its spiritual, is the medium through 
which the Lord himself becomes conjoined to man ; its natural, 
is the ultimate vehicle by which He effects successive creations. 
Moreover, as the positive determines the character of the negative, 
its spiritual determines the material — the thought governs the 
act. Impure and inordinate desires, such as lust, anger, hatred, 
malice, revenge, envy, selfishness, etc., all beget corresponding 
conditions in the natural elements of the seminal fluids, and these, 
being antagonistic to the Divine forces, establish a new and dis- 
integrating condition in the system, which becomes the primary 
creative and propagating cause — because connected with the re- 
creative principle — of all diseased action. To look and lust is to 



490 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

commit ; and every inordinate desire sows the seed, which, when 
matured, brings forth death. 

The Jewish circumcision was typical of sexual purity, and as St. 
Paul has given us to understand, corresponded to the circumcision 
of the heart, which means to put away the filthy loves of the flesh 
and become holy. In this demand upon that representative people, 
God clearly designated the primary cause of all moral disorder. 
Nor can we reasonably look for it elsewhere. It is the pivotal 
principle of the human constitution, the basis of all reform, of all 
morality, of all happiness, of all religion, by underlying every 
other condition of man. Much has been said and written of the 
terrible consequences growing out of the abuse of this function : 
but its relation to the moral constitution and to God, has never 
been understood. It is to man what the laws of attraction and 
gravitation are to the material universe. As the Earth could not 
produce vegetation, nor possess either light or warmth without 
these principles, neither could man possess either emotion, or moral 
or intellectual qualities without the seminal forces — the power and 
quality of one, is as the power and quality of the other. Every 
disease of the body, every sin to which man is heir, all the dis- 
orders and infidelity of the world, have sprung from this primary 
source of all human wickedness. Whenever it is brought within 
the limits of an orderly use, by the restraint of the moral and intel- 
lectual powers, it becomes the element of goodness and truth, the 
ultimate basis upon which God builds his Church ; against which 
the gates of hell cannot prevail. On the other hand, its impure 
condition becomes the ultimate basis of all infernal influences, and 
forms the ultimate condition through which evil spirits can find 
access into the individual. Close up this gateway of human 
depravity, and from that moment hell is shut out from the earth, 
and diseases and misery will no longer afflict mankind. The earth 
will again blossom as the rose, and man again dwell in the Paradise 
of God. u From whence come wars and fightings among you ? 
come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your 
members ?"* 

Wherefore with what profound respect ought we to look upon 
the principle from which we derive every enjoyment here, the 
principle which is the physical basis upon which we are to estab- 
lish a glorious hereafter, the principle through which, when puri- 
fied of its evils, we see God. How natural then that the libertine 

* James 4: 1. 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 491 

and courtesan who having corrupted this medium of light and hap- 
piness should become Pantheists instead of Christians, lovers of 
evil rather than lovers of God. " When loves are opposite, then 
all things of perception become opposite ; for, from love which con- 
stitutes the very life of man, all things flow as rivers from their 
source." 

" For the reason that all that is in the plane of causes tends con- 
tinually through its means to the plane of ends, whatever of organic 
or hereditary evil there is in a man, whatever of influxes prevailing 
from the hells, and whatever of wrath, malice, deceit or unright- 
eousness of any sort that he cherishes in his own bosom, con- 
tinually flow in their ultimates into the seminal vessels, where the 
soul-germ is maintained until its descent into the feminine absorb- 
ents. The conditions of the offspring are therefore in the man. 
Even when regeneration is begun, in most cases, the living humors 
of the body are tainted. The menstruum or fluid which surrounds 
the soul-germ becomes itself like a miasmatic pool, in which the 
ultimate forms which these diseases take upon themselves are mons- 
ters, reduced to the most infinitesimal size. These swarm within 
the soul-germ of the feminine ova, where they breed, till through- 
out the unborn embryo, densely swarming within the very cell- 
germs, and in the circulating fluids, are millions of such diabolical 
inversions. The body which the child receives from its parents, 
through these inverted conditions, resembles a lake of hell, which 
is full of floating demons, both of the reptilia and of the human 
kind. 

" Whatever there is of evil thought or feelings in the affections 
of the parents generates a brood of these. When the child begins 
to possess the faculty of thinking and willing from himself, those 
myriads of living infestations feed upon all that he feeds upon. 
They grow powerful, and, because they are inverted, they prompt 
to unnatural desires, so that he hungers and thirsts for that which 
is forbidden. They take form around the will into agglomerate 
shapes, and are visible, from the'stand-point of the Angels, like rav- 
enous beasts and serpents and birds of foul omen within the body. 
The inverted types of the lion and his race swarm throughout the 
mental system, and live in the hot-blooded angers of passion. The 
man who thirsts for the life of his fellows has hyenas in his blood. 
The passion of back-biting and defaming, and, also, for maligning, 
called sometimes by the politer names of analysis and criticism, 
engenders throughout the animal spirits all such sorts of crawling 



492 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

and stinging insects as hatch their young in dead and rotting flesh. 
The passion for illicit sexual intercourse developes creatures of the 
dog kind within the blood, and loathsome and unutterable deformi- 
ties, for which there is no name. By this means, as man gives 
himself up and is confirmed in evil, he is seen as a microcosm of 
hell. The impulsion of the blood into the arteries produces a new 
generation of these, and they are projected into and through the 
remotest parts of the system until they reach the extremities. 
Many of them cease to exist in the spent force of each impulsion. 
The venous system is loaded with their dead bodies. In the last 
stages of the corruption of a human spirit on the earth, when self- 
love has trampled on the love of God and trodden it beneath its 
heel, the arterial blood becomes so completely gorged with these 
multiplied creations, that it can no more be subject to the dynamic 
forces which descend from the Heavens, and which propel the 
motive organs. Then sudden death ensues. The unexpected 
deaths of wicked men are from this cause, though other causes are 
combined with it. The spirits of these ascend into the venous and 
arterial circulations of a man's interior and spiritual body. There 
is a perpetual procession of the evil affections of the evil into 
organisms, through the arterial blood. Their corpse-like exuvia 
pass into the venous circulation. Their interior essences become 
active entities in the spiritual body, and in the circulation of that 
body. In this manner evil begets evil in its own image, and 
after its own likeness. The consequences of every man's actions 
return into himself. 

u The spiritual causes of disease may be traced out through the 
ramifications of this principle. The anger which a man habitually 
is guilty of, develops a choleric habit in the blood, and the animal 
spirits, roused into an intestine war, torture each other. There is 
no disease upon the earth, but that primarily began in the diseases 
of the spirits of the blood. There are interior plague seasons. 
Putrid exhalations from the decomposed forms of the animal 
spirits saturate some one organization, male or female, till, finally, 
the plague appears upon the surface of the form. So pestilences 
began, such forms being centres of disease to the human race. 
Dying, they impregnate the atmosphere, and the disease spreads 
by a diffused miasma. This deleterious ether, taken into the res- 
piratories, touches, with the wand of death, first one. and then 
myriads of the animal spirits. So disease travels upon the wings 
of the wind, and is extended from continent to continent. Every 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 493 

disease is communicated by means of atmospheric infusoria, gen- 
erated from the breaths of the contagion. These infusoria are 
inhaled in myriads. When a man dies of an infection the disease 
does not perish. The death lives after it has slain its victim. The 
aerial exhalations which float above the sepulchres, are, themselves, 
pernicious, diffusing the same contagions in other forms. Even 
though masses of granite be piled above the putrid body, the 
infection communicates itself, absorbed and diffused through solid 
rock, and rising above. 

" The aromal spirit of the orb contains within itself dense 
masses of poisonous clouds. Distributed, at times, by means of 
electrical influences, plants, and animals which receive them, are 
made the subjects of epidemic diseases. Aphides, or parasitical 
insects, of species hitherto unknown, at such times are generated, 
and they still further diffuse the vegetable or the animal poison. 
The murrain in cattle, and the diseases called the scab and the 
itch in sheep, flow through these parasitical organizations. The 
disease called glanders, in horses, refers itself to identical causes. 
Where bronchial diseases begin to appear in members of the 
human family, and when the coatings of the lungs begin to be 
inflamed, countless numbers of these aphides congregate within 
the invisible tissues. Consumption of the bowels is attended with 
similar phenomena. Without trenching upon the sphere of the 
Physician in the Lord's New Church, these hints are thrown out 
merely as indices of immense continents of truth in this direction. 

" The most foul and loathsome of all inversions are generated in, 
upon and through the bodies of harlots. Terrible as are the physi- 
cal penalties which finally visit them, and which return upon adul- 
terers with a corporeal manifestation of the burnings of the hells, 
their spiritual bodies exhibit a more terrific disease. I have seen 
the mistresses of men of pleasure in the hells, and there are yelping 
cerberi periodically ejected from their bodies. There are such 
woes in the hell of adulterers that when the appalling disclosure of 
that world is made, the sight of a harlot will inspire terror, as if 
her organization were the abomination itself. But libertines and 
adulterers see their own lusts organic before their eyes, in their 
place of torment, and they are tortured by and through them. 

"The parasites which infest, in their infinitesimal multitudes, 
the cell-germs in the bodies of women of pleasure are exhaled 
through their breathing. When they are inhaled by men of like 
sort they inspire the senses to lust. The exhalations from the 



494 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

lungs of all men who are in the love and practice of adultery, 
breathe out these noxious animalcules in dense and swarming masses, 
and they form themselves in their congregate shapes in the aromal 
atmosphere into obscene images. There is a law of organic attrac- 
tion by which they are drawn toward human beings who are 
indulging in the desire of impurity. The lungs of the unchaste 
attract and absorb them. Every exhalation from the lungs evolves 
a myriad of these organic breaths or spirits of the breaths. Within the 
aromal atmosphere of the orb all of like kind congregate together 
by the attraction of affinities. The corporeal animal passions are 
visible to the aromal sight and are seen as the spirits of .the corpo- 
real atmosphere. The exhalations of adulterers compose an organic 
aerial stratification of a corresponding sort, and the atoms live. 
Deceit, pride, avarice, revenge, persecution, hate, malice, — all 
deadly sins, — each flow into their own appropriate element. The 
blood-thirsty man drinks murder from the organic air. The same 
is true of any other evil."* 

It is not to be supposed that Mr. Harris intends to be under- 
stood that actual conscious individual entities of the species he has 
here designated are generated in the blood by the perversion of 
the human appetites ; but that such perversions create the condi- 
tions by which the inordinate desires of these and all other ferocious 
animals, poisonous insects and reptiles, were first induced and are 
maintained. In this opinion I most fully concur, and the deadly 
poison of many plants and animals, is but the concentration of 
properties generated in the human system and which, by a benefi- 
cent arrangement of Divine Prjvidence, become absorbed into 
these different types of disordered species to prevent their general 
diffusion throughout animated existence. Such plants and animals 
are but the reservoirs, so' to speak, of the evils of an apostate race, 
and so far from being disastrous to man, they are an indispensable 
accompaniment to his existing conditions. 

This is one of the most ancient beliefs found in the pages of 
history. In the Chinese Five Sacred Books, written more than 
two thousand years antecedent to the commencement of the Christ- 
ian era, compiled by Confucius, and which takes us back toward 
the period of the Golden Age,f when many of its sacred princi- 

* Arcana of Christianity by Rev. T. L. Harris, No. 682-687. 

t The Golden Age of the Past is much dwelt upon by the Chinese ancient com- 
mentators. One of them says : " All places were then equally the native country 
of every man. Flocks wandered in the fields without any guide ; birds filled the 
air with their melodious voices ; and the fruits grew of their own accord. Man 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 495 

pies still lingered in the minds of the most devout men, we find 
the following remarkable statement: "Tien (God) placed man 
upon a high mountain, which Tai Wang (the first man) rendered 
fruitless by his own fault. He filled the earth with thorns and 
briars, and said, I am not guilty, for I could not do otherwise. 
Why did he plunge us into so much misery ? All was subject to 
man at first, but a woman threw us into slavery. The wise hus- 
band raised up a bulwark of walls ; but the woman, by an am- 
bitious desire of knowledge demolished them. Our misery did 
not come from Heaven, but from a woman. She lost the human 
race. Ah, unhappy Pao See, (first woman) thou kindlest the fire 
that consumes us, and which is every day augmenting. Our mis- 
ery has lasted many ages. The world is lost. Vice overflows all 
things, like a mortal poison." The commentator Lopi, says : 
" After man had acquired false science, nature was spoiled and de- 
graded. All creation became his enemies. The birds of the air, 
the beasts of the field, the serpents and the reptiles, conspired to 
hurt him." 

From what has now been said, it will be seen that all diseases 
have their origin in the passions and lusts of mankind ; such as 
intemperances, luxuries of various kinds, pleasures merely cor- 
poreal, envyings, hatreds, revenges, lasciviousness, avarice and the 
like, which destroy man's interiors and create the conditions of 
organic diseases ; so that sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. 
It now remains to be shown in what manner this is effected and 
how the disease is transferred from the plane of the mind to that of 
the body. 

I. All diseases, whether organic or functional, take their rise in 
the spiritual plane of life, or what is the same thing, in the spiritual 
world, and holds a definite correspondence to its various stratas 
and conditions. As the spiritual world is the world of causes, 
without this correspondence there could be no material existence, 
as there would be no vital principle by which its existence could be 
maintained. Whatever, therefore, in the natural world has taken 
its rise in the spiritual world, ceases to exist whenever the spiritual 

lived pleasantly with the animals, and all creatures were members of the same 
family. Ignorant of evil, man lived in simplicity and perfect innocence." Another 
says : " In the first age of perfect purity, all was in harmony, and the passions 
did not occasion the slightest murmur. Man, united to sovereign reason within, 
conformed his outward actions to sovereign justice. Free from all duplicity and 
falsehood, his soul received marvelous felicity from heaven, and the purest delights 
from earth." This perfectly accords with the New Church doctrine of the Golden 
Age. 



496 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

forces which caused its existence cease to operate — its subsistence 
must maintain an immediate relation with the cause of its existence. 
The things which are in or belong to nature, are mere effects, their 
causes being in the spiritual world are maintained by spiritual 
forces. These effects cease to subsist unless the cause be continu- 
ally in them ; for on the cessation of the cause the effect ceases ; 
an effect considered in itself, is but the continuation of the cause ; 
but the cause so extrinsically clothed, as may serve to enable it to 
act as a cause in an inferior sphere. It is in virtue of this law, 
that man by discontinuing his relations with the hells, from which 
all physical diseases and moral disorders arise, can have their 
effects removed and ultimately become established in health and 
harmony ; for by severing himself from the forces which produced 
the derangement, they can no longer act upon him ; and in doing 
this, he at the same time conjoins himself to the divine forces which 
constantly tend to repair the injuries sustained from any disorderly 
relations. But in order to sever his connection with his spiritual 
foes, it is first necessary that he should comprehend their existence 
and the nature of their influence upon him, (for man cannot suc- 
cessfully contend with what he does not understand,) and while 
holding himself positive to their devices, interpose the Lord, by 
faith and obedience, between himself and the cause of his misfor- 
tunes. The Commandments constitute the walls of the New Jeru- 
salem which no devil can ever scale, and so long as man lives in a 
religious obedience to them, he is panoplied with the Divine sphere, 
which effectually protects him from the influx of all disintegrating 
forces which culminate in a diseased action. 

That spirits, in some way or other, powerfully act upon the physi- 
cal as well as the moral constitution of man, is a doctrine abun- 
dantly sustained by the Scriptures, reason, history, and observa- 
tion. There is no age nor condition that is not subject to the in- 
fluence of spirits, either good or bad, the nature of which is gov- 
erned by the religious condition of man, so that the class of spirits 
changes with every changing state of the individual. Evil spirits, 
affinitize with, and flow into evil loves, and deranged physical con- 
ditions, which they persistently seek to augment, with a view to 
destroy their subject as to both soul and body. Nor can the dis- 
eases which accrue from these spiritual forces, ever be really and 
permanently cured without first changing the moral condition 
which gave rise to them — the cure depends upon the patient's sub- 
duing within himself a love for things forbidden, rather than any 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 497 

extraneous medicinal applications. True, much temporary relief 
may be derived from medicine, or the disease may be made to 
change its mode of action, or even be suppressed in its outward man- 
ifestations; but so long as the cause continues to exist, it will inev- 
itably produce its effects. Diseases, however, which arise from ex- 
traneous causes in cooperation with interior conditions, may be so 
effectually brought under the influence of medicinal agents, as to 
cease their manifestations. But these extraneous causes, are in 
reality, only the conservation of forces in nature, generated in the 
human constitution, and though they have once been thrown off 
by disease and death, they again react upon man with fearful con- 
sequences; for a man's release from disease, either by death or a 
cure, is not an annihilation of the forces which produced it ; so 
that they still exist to afflict others who are in a condition to be 
afflicted by them. Every vicious desire, in virtue of its immedi- 
ate connection with the primary source of all disorder, is a disease 
generating principle ; for it becomes the avenue through which 
spiritual forces find access, not only into the individual, but through 
him into the natural universe, so that others are compelled to feed 
upon elements, and to inhale an atmosphere impregnated by it. 
Every sinful emotion, though it may not be ultimated in act, is, 
therefore, a misfortune, not merely to the individual, but to the 
world; for it lets loose upon mankind disordered conditions with 
which they are obliged to contend for ages to come. The air, 
water, and vegetation, are charged with it, so that all animated 
creatures share in the general misfortune and the whole creation 
groans and travails in pain together. 

II The larger vessels of the human body, like streams of water 
which are dependent upon numerous lesser ones, are composed, of 
many smaller vessels, and these of still others, and so on, until we 
arrive at those which are too minute for finite conception. These 
smaller ones are continued to man's interiors, where reside the 
forces corresponding to his loves. Here commences the first and 
inmost obstruction, the first and inmost vitiation of the blood 
which ultimates in a vitiation of the whole constitution, caus- 
ing disease and death. The will is the positive and impregnat- 
ing principle of the? body ; and these vessels are the first recepta- 
cles of this impregnating force, and from these it flows into larger 
ones, as brooks into rivers, and rivers into the ocean, until the 
whole system becomes surcharged with it, which generates life or 
death according to its quality. The finer elements of the seminal 



498 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

fluids, are the vehicles of this conveyance, which through the me- 
dium of the blood, are equally distributed throughout the organic 
structure. 

The genital glands are the extreme negative poles and ultimate 
receptacles of these surplus forces, whence the quality of the re-cre- 
ative principle is in exact keeping with the quality of the will ; so 
that the parent transmits his own mental, moral and physical like- 
ness, and thus reestablishes in his offspring the predisposition to 
the same disease, by transmitting the same moral proclivities. If it 
were the physical infirmities alone that were transmitted, the moral 
at the same time remaining sound, a complete restoration would 
speedily follow ; but the disease or the tendency to it, is perpetu- 
ated through the weakness of the moral forces, however correct the 
life may be — the correctness being more of a suppression of the 
predisposition than a radical cure. But if this suppression is con- 
scientiously continued until the will becomes strong in the right ; 
in other words, if the individual interposes the divine sphere between 
him and the infesting influences which maintain the diseased 
action, he accomplishes much in overcoming the predisposition to 
his ancestral infirmity, and in preventing it from descending to the 
next generation. 

The divine sphere is the only insulator between good and evil, 
so that to suppress vicious conduct from any other motive than a 
religious one, is to" perpetuate a relation with the same spiritual 
forces which originally developed the disease ; and these forces 
constantly tend to augment, rather than diminish the infirmity, 
until, ultimately, the disease is providentially stayed by the death 
of its victims before they reach the propagative period. Hence 
what is regarded as premature deaths, are usually the greatest pos- 
sible blessings in disguise, for they close up the avenues through 
which diseased action is maintained. Recognizing the providence 
of the Lord as perfect in all the affairs of human life, their early 
death is prima facie evidence that they are unfitted to maintain 
the order of the physical creation, however otherwise it may seem 
to human observation. 

Love, whether orderly or disorderly, is the conjunctive princi- 
ple, by which a man connects himself with the universal sphere 
and all its consequences, of whatever he loves. It is also a nega- 
tive principle and as such is receptive of every corresponding force. 
To love evil in any of its multiplied forms, is to become negative to 
and receptive of it. As the wife is pervaded by the conditions of 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 499 

her husband in the degree as she loves those conditions, whether 
they are good or evil ; so every individual is pervaded by such 
spiritual forces as correspond to his affections. To love the Lord 
and to promote the good of the neighbor, is to open every avenue 
of the soul to the influx of heaven ; to love self and the world, evil 
and the false, more than good and truth, is to open every avenue 
of the soul to the influx of the hells, from which spring those moral 
disorders which culminate in every conceivable form of physical 
disease. The same forces which intercept between husband and 
wife and destroys their happiness, conservate their action and impairs 
the integrity of the organic functions ; so that moral disorder inva- 
riably tends to produce a corresponding physical derangement. 

If these views be well founded, of which it appears to me 
there can be no reasonable doubt, it will be seen that diseases are 
but the physical expression of those lusts and passions of the mind 
to which they correspond; and that their tendency is to spend their 
force through the bodily functions as the only means of relief to 
the spirit ; whence every physical infirmity becomes a representa- 
tive of a corresponding moral condition. Were it not for this 
mode of operation, the spirit, like lands bordering on an obstructed 
stream, would become flooded with the terrible disorders of the 
hells, which would obliterate every moral sense and destroy the 
soul forever. In view of these facts, it will be seen that physical 
diseases are the necessary and salutary accompaniment of moral im- 
purity, and should be regarded as fortunate conditions so long as 
the loves remain nn regenerated ; for they are only lesser evils to 
effect a greater good — a good which pertains to the eternal inter- 
est of the individual. 

Thus far in this essay I have aimed to show that the primeval 
cause of both moral and physical diseases have their origin in the 
derangement of the human will ; and that the tendency of these 
disorders is from the centre to the circumference, inflicting each 
substratum or discrete degree, until, on the one hand, they culmi- 
nate in a functional derangement of the organic structure ; and on 
the other, in a pervertion of the moral perceptions. It now re- 
mains to consider whether these diseases are in any degree trans- 
ferable from one to another, and if so, to what extent others may 
become afflicted by them through mere associative sympathy, 

Disease, springing as it does from moral conditions, is transfera- 
ble from one to another through the psychological forces whenever 
an individual becomes in any way negative to it. The physician 



500 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

who persistently holds himself positive to his patients, will usually 
avoid partaking of their infirmities. He passes amid contagious 
and epidemic diseases unharmed. But no sooner does he become 
the negative party, than the forces flow from the patient to him, so 
that he is made to suffer in the ratio of his susceptibility. But the 
disease will take on such form in its new victim, as his constitu- 
tional weakness may permit. For it is not confined to any partic- 
ular function ; but being a magnetic force, it attacks any function 
which is the most negative to it. But it is not a whit less trans- 
ferable than any other psychological principle. 

It is a fact been long observed, that during the prevalence of 
an epidemic, the most fearful are the most liable to an attack. 
Fear is a negative condition, so that those who are the most actu- 
ated by it, are especially receptive of the influence they would 
avoid. It forms the conditions into which the disease flows; and 
no sooner are they attacked than their fearful apprehensions are 
still more augmented, and they yield to fears to which they should 
hold themselves positive, and expel from their systems. Person^ 
of strong and determinate wills are frequently able to rally from 
diseases which will rapidly hurry others, even of far better consti- 
tutions, into the grave. Such persons usually recover in opposi- 
tion to reasonable predictions to the contrary ; and those who live 
many years longer than their physical condition would seem of 
warrant, are of this class. Their mind maintains the existence of 
their bodies. But space will not permit further elucidation of this 
subject. 

Menstruation.* 

Much discussion has taken place respecting the causes of the 
menstrual flow, but as respecting its use, physiologists are still as 
much unenlightened as at any previous age of the world. This 

* In a popular treatise like the present, if it were possible to complete the system 
of philosophy laid down in this work without it, I should be most happy to avoid 
the discussion of a subject to which so much delicacy is attached. The subject 
is by far too intimately connected with both the temporal and eternal interest 
of mankind to justify me in passing it over in silence, or in allowing any delicacy 
which may have grown out of the ignorance of the nature and use of this func- 
tion, to prevent me from presenting it to the world in its true character and office. 
If its relation to the moral constitution of both sexes -was properly understood, 
millions would become anxious to avail themselves of its benefits before it is too 
late; — those who ever intend to secure to themselves a religious life would not 
dare to procrastinate the day of repentance and reformation beyond the cessation 
of this function. Shall I, then, allow delicacy to cause me to withhold the neces- 
sary information ? 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 501 

discharge appears normally to consist of blood deprived of its 
fibrine ; the fluid being composed of serum, in which red corpus- 
cles are suspended, and being readily distinguished from true 
blood by its want of power to clot. It commences at puberty, 
and usually continues about thirty years. It is a discharge pecu- 
liar to woman, and which characterizes no other creature. It is 
true that in some of the lower animals there is a sort of sero-san- 
guinolent discharge at the period of heat; but nothing like the 
catamenia of woman. The fact that the rest of creation are pro- 
lific without it, clearly demonstrates that it is not a necessary pre- 
requisite to reproduction. If further evidence of this is needed, it 
will be found in the fact, that many women have borne large fam- 
ilies, without ever having menstruated. It is, therefore, abundantly 
evident that it performs some special and important office aside 
from reproduction. Under this head I shall endeavor to show 
what that office is, and the use of this function upon the human 
character. 

The Bible recognizes the menstrual flow as one of great impu- 
rity, and woman was specially set apart for seven days for her 
purification from this flux, during which period man was not 
allowed to approach her, nor to touch her garments ; any violation 
of which, rendered him also impure for an equal length of time. 
" And if any man lie w T ith her at all, and her flowers be ivpon 
him, he shall be unclfan seven days ; and all the bed whereon he 
lieth shall be unclean ; " Lev. 15 : 24. See also the 23d verse of 
the same chapter ; Isa. 30 : 22 ; Lam. 1 : 17 : Ezek. 18 : 3 These 
passages are sufficient to show in what light this function is held 
by the Lord. For this there must be some special and important 
reason. If it pertained exclusively to reproduction, it would be 
the purest and most holy, instead of the most impure function con- 
nected with woman. Any contact with it required seven days of 
purification ; whereas, in case of any issue of blood from the flesh, 
the parties w^ere required to wash " and be unclean until even." 
The question is, why should this periodical function be regarded 
so much more unclean than running issues or ordinary ulcers ? 
Evidently, from the fact that it connects with, and is a necessity 
growing out of the depravity of human nature. 

Puberty may be regarded as the inauguration of the period of 
moral accountability. True, the youth may have much just con- 
ception of right and wrong long before they are capable of re-pro- 
ducing their species ; but their rational powers are yet too feeble 



502 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

to properly comprehend all the consequences which are liable to 
grow out of any given conduct, and until this is the case, they are 
not justly amenable for their acts, particularly in that moral sense 
which we attribute to the mature mind. Simultaneous with this 
moral accountability, commences the menstrual flow with woman. 
One is immediately connected with and is indispensable to the 
other, — a flux which grows out of the moral constitution and an 
imperative necessity as a means of discharging the constantly accum- 
ulating weight of evil flowing from the more positive phases of life. 

Everywhere in existence the positive is the engendering, and 
the negative the ultimating principle ; so that the negative brings 
forth whatever the positive engenders. This law pertains equally 
to the moral as to the physical plane ; whence woman becomes as 
much the receptacle and ultimater of man's moral qualities as of 
his physical condition. The menstrual flow was instituted as the 
means of conveying from the parties such forces or properties as 
are generated by disordered, wills, in order to relieve the constitu- 
tion from their disease-generating and morally-corrupting influ- 
ence. And it is a fact fully demonstrated, that the quantity of 
this flow at any given period, largely depends upon woman's sym- 
pathetic associations subsequent to the cessation of her previous 
catamenia. I have known extremely exhausting flows to be 
induced solely through the action of foreign spheres reaching the 
wife through the husband — the husband taking on the psycho- 
logical influences of others through the sympathetic relations, and 
transferring them to the wife ; and though he was unable to per- 
ceive their effects upon him, they became painfully apparent upon 
her. 

I have sufficiently investigated this subject to thoroughly satisfy 
myself that there is a vast amount of suffering on the part of women 
through the action of this law ; but usually her intuitive perceptions 
are too feeble to trace it to its cause. In fact, the mixed state of soci- 
ety, without any regard to moral conditions, has so submerged woman 
as to destroy her intuitions and render her sensual and obtuse, by 
the weight of evil brought to bear upon her. If it be said that 
woman is herself constitutionally sensual, I reply, that she has 
become so only by being the reflector of man. Connect a pure- 
minded woman with a high-toned man, and I will vouch for her 
chastity, both in thought and act. But negative as she is to man, 
and receptive of his conditions, the wonder is that she possesses 
half the chastity that she does. It can only be accounted for from 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 503 

the fact that she is endowed with an interior principle of virtue 
which continues to live though submerged in evil. 

Man is the positive principle of the sexual function, woman the 
negative ; and between these two extremes — the positive phase 
of man, and the negative phase of woman — is. embraced all there 
is of good and evil, the spiritual and the material. But man is the 
engendering, not the prolific party ; hence his forces in order to 
become useful, must be transferred to woman, where they are 
nourished into conscious entities. He is the formative principle, 
and she the ultimate?' of his formations. The germ deposited by 
the male, attracts to itself such elements from the female, as are 
essential to the building up of its own constitution, and as soon as 
it arrives to that condition where it is able to sustain an individual 
entity, it then demands a wider field of operation, and the female 
is compelled to bring forth what she has nourished. 

What is true on the physical plane of life is also true on the 
spiritual. The magnetic forces of the male are being constantly 
transferred to the female ; and as in the case of the spermatozoa, 
they set up a new action in her, corresponding to their own condi- 
tion. But so far as she cannot render these forces useful, nature 
has provided means by which they may be expelled from her s}^s- 
tem through an abnormal secretion ;* so that strictly speaking, the 
menstrual flow is nothing more or less than the abortions merci- 
fully instituted by the Creator, in order that woman may rid her- 
self of the disorderly magnetism of the male forces. 

Were it not for this providential provision, there would scarcely 
be a possibility of her regeneration ; for the accumulation of 
these forces would so completely inundate all her moral percep- 
tions with their corrupting influence, that she would plunge herself 
headlong into every degradation. In fact, like most of the "frail 
ones," she would lose the power of discriminating between right 
and wrong. I have sought in vain to find a man or woman, who, 
for the first time, have become especially interested in religious 
matters subsequent to the cessation of this function in the wife. 
But, on the contrary, I have known many who, after the " turn of 
life," have rapidly degenerated into the most radical phases of in- 
fidelity — shamefully ridiculing the church, religion, and God. In 

* I am aware that menstruation is considered a normal function of the human 
female. In this opinion I cannot concur, for to me it is abundantly evident that 
this function is solely the result of the apostacy of man, and that were the race 
without sin, there would be no more necessity for this periodical discharge from 
woman, than there is from any other sentient creature. 



504 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

fact, I have no hopes of the reformation of any man who is not in 
some way connected through the affections with a menstruous 
woman. She is no less the ultimater of his evils, than of his gen- 
erative principles ; and without this provision for their exit from 
the human constitution, both sexes would become so submerged by 
them, that every moral sense would be obliterated, and God 
w*ould recede from human view. We might as well undertake to 
dam up a stream without inundating the surrounding country, as 
to dam up the forces of hell without their overflowing the soul. 
It is impossible to conceive of the awful moral and intellectual 
darkness which would speedily follow, were this function to uni- 
versally cease among women. 

Moreover, physically considered, it is the most deadly of all 
moral poisons, and when retained in the system, it produces a hot 
skin, fever, quick pulse, thirst, nausea, inflammation of the brain, 
lungs, intestinal canal and uterus, violent headache, deliriums, hys- 
teria, apoplexy, paralysis, obstructed vision, amaurosis, eruptions, 
neuralgia, and death. And these results are in exact ratio to the 
woman's constitutional negativeness, or receptivity of the mascu- 
line sphere. Positive and self-reliant women, or those who more 
nearly approximate to the male in their dispositions and general 
characteristics, are far less liable to uterine disease or their con- 
comitant evils, than those of a softer and more effeminate turn of 
mind. So far as she is positive, she resists the influx of the male, 
and thus shields herself from his condition ; and as he, at the same 
time, has no affection for her, his magnetic forces do not go 
out in that direction. But the more feminine a woman is, the 
more she attracts man, and the more absorbent she becomes of his 
influence ; and the more negative she is, the more profusely 
healthy must be the menstrual flow in order to maintain the equi- 
librium of her system. Hence we find that the sanguine and more 
genial temperaments, have a flow corresponding to the ardor of 
their nature. 

The Cause and Cure of Diseases. 

No subject was ever involved in greater mystery than the pri- 
mary cause of disease — none has ever provoked more irrational 
speculations. Notwithstanding all the light which the Bible throws 
upon this subject by associating disease with demons, and the many 
cures immediately following their expulsion from their human vic- 
tims, mankind have lost the connection between the cause and the 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 505 

effect, and with it, the power of producing speedy and permanent 
cures. They have grown into such gross materialism and such general 
ignorance of the immediate and intimate relation between the nat- 
ural and the spiritual world, that they have no just conception 
of the phenomena by which they are everywhere surrounded and 
with which they are daily afflicted. 

" It is in vain to speak of cures, or think of remedies, until such 
time as we have considered of the causes ; so Gaien prescribes, 
and the common experience of others confirms, that those cures 
must be imperfect, tame, and to no purpose, wherein the causes 
have not first been searched, as Prosper Calenius well observes, 
insomuch that Fernelius puts a kind of necessity in the knowledge 
of the causes, and without which it is impossible to cure or prevent 
any manner of disease. Empyrics may ease, and sometimes help, 
but not thoroughly root out ; if the cause be removed the effect is 
likewise vanquished. 

" General causes are either supernatural or natural. Supernat- 
ural are from Gcod and His angels, or, by Grod's permission, from 
the devil and his ministers. That God himself is a cause for the 
punishment for sin, and satisfaction of his justice, many examples 
and testimonies of holy Scriptures make evident unto us : Fools, 
because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are 
afflicted ! Gehazi was struck with leprosy,* Jehoram with dysen- 
tery and flux, and great distress of the bowels, f David plagued for 
numbering his people,J Sodom and Gomorrah swallowed up. He 
struck them with madness, blindness, and astonishment of heart. § 
An evil spirit was sent by the Lord upon Saul to vex. him. 
Nebuchadnezzar did eat grass like an ox ; and his heart was made 
like the beasts of the field. Heathen stories are full of such punish- 
ments. Lycurgus, because he cut down the vines in the country, 
was, driven by Bacchus, into madness : so was Pantheus and his 
mother Agave, for neglecting their sacrifice. Censor Fulvius run 
mad for untiling Juno's temple, to cover a new one of his own, 
which he had dedicated to Fortunio, and was confounded to death 
with grief and sorrow of heart. When Xerxes would have spoiled 
Apollo's temple at Delphos of those infinite riches it possessed, a ter- 
rible thunder came from heaven and struck 4000 men dead ; the rest 
ran mad. A little after, the like happened to Brennus (lightning, 
thunder, earthquake,) upon such a sacrilegious occasion. If we may 
believe our pontifical, they will relate unto many strange andprodi- 
* 2 Kings 5 : 27. 1 2 Chron. 21 : 15. J 2 Sam. 24. § Deut. 28 : 28. 



506 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

gious punishments in this kind, inflicted by their saints ; — how Cla- 
dovoeus, sometime king of France, the son of Dogobert, lost his wits 
for uncovering the body of St. Denis ; and how a sacrilegious 
Frenchman, that would have stolen away a silver image of St. 
John, at Brigburge, became frantic on a sudden, raging and tyran- 
nizing over his own flesh ; of a lord of Rhodnor, that, coming from 
hunting late at night, put his dogs into St. Avan's church, and 
rising betimes next morning, as hunters used to do, found all his 
dogs mad, himself being suddenly stricken blind ; of Tiridates, an 
Armenian king, for violating some holy nuns, that was punished in 
like sort, with loss of his wits. But poets and papists may go 
together for fabulous tales ; let them free their own credits. How- 
soever they fain of their Nemesis, and of their saints, or, by the 
devil's means, may be deluded, we find it true, that ulter a tergo 
Deus, he is God, the avenger, as David styles himself ; and that it is 
our crying sins that pull this and many other maladies on our own 
heads ; that He can, by his angels, which are his ministers, strike 
and heal (saith Dionysius,) whom he will; that he can plague by 
his creatures, sun, moon and stars, which He useth as his instru- 
ments, as a husbandman (saith Zanchius,) doth a hatchet. Hail, 
snow, winds, &c. 

Et conjurati veniunt in classica venti.* 

as in Joshua's time, as in Pharaoh's reign in Egypt, they are but 
so many executioners of His justice. He can make the proudest 
spirit stoop and cry out, with Julian the Apostate Vicisti Galiloel ! 
or, with Apollos priest in Chrysostome, caelum ! terra! unde 
host-is hie? What an enemy is this? and pray with David, ac- 
knowledging his power, I am weakened and sore broken ; I roar for 
the grief of mine heart; mine heart panteth, $c\ Lord rebuke 
me not in thine anger, neither chastise me in thywrath.^ Make me 
to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken, may 
rejoice.^ Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and stablish me 
with thy free spirit. For these causes belike Hippocrates would 
have a physician take special notice whether the disease come not 
from a divine supernatural cause, or whether the disease follow 
the course of nature. But this is further discussed by Fran. 
Valesius, Fernelius, and J. Cassar Claudinus, to whom I refer you, 
how this place of Hippocrates is to be understood. Paracelsus is 
of opinion, that such spiritual diseases (for so he calls them) are 

* And the winds called together, come against the fleets. 
t Psalms 38 : 8. $ Psalms 38 : 1. § Psalms 51 : 8, 12. 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 507 

spiritually to be cured, and not otherwise. Ordinary means in 
such casag will not avail : non est reluctand'im cum Deo. When 
that monster-taming Hercules overcame all in the Olympics, Jupi- 
ter at last, in an unknown shape, wrestled with him ; the victory 
was uncertain, till at length Jupiter descried himself, and Hercules 
yielded. No striving with supreme powers : 

Nil juvat iaimensos Cratero promittere montes : * 
physicians and physics can do no good ; we must submit ourselves 
under the mighty hand of Grod, acknowledge our offenses, call to 
him for mercy. If he strike us, as it is with them that are wound- 
ed with the spear of Achilles ; he alone must help ; otherwise our 
diseases are incurable, and we not to be relieved." f 

Again : let us look into the history of the Jews, and see in what 
light this subject was looked upon by that highly favored people. 

i(r God enabled Solomon," says Josephus, " to learn that skill 
which expels demons, which is a science useful and sanative to 
him. He composed such incantations also, by which distempers 
are alleviated. And he left behind him the manner of using exor- 
cisms, by which they drive away demons, so that they never re- 
turn ; and this method of cure is of great force unto this day : for 
I have seen a certain man of my own country, whose name was 
Eleazer, releasing people that were demoniacal, in the presence of 
Vespasian, and his sons, and his captains, and the whole multitude 
of his soldiers. The manner of the cure was this : he put a ring 
that had a root of one of those sorts mentioned by Solomon, to hte 
nostrils of the demoniac, after which he drew out the demon 
through his nostrils ; and when the man fell down, immediately he 
adjured him to return to him no more, making still mention of 
Solomon, and reciting the incantation which he composed. And 
when Eleazer would persuade and demonstrate to the spectators, 
that he had such a power, he set a little way off a cup or basin full 
of water, and commanded the demon, as he went out of the man, 
to overthrow it, and thereby to let the spectators know that he 
had left the man ; and when this was done, the skill and wisdom 
of Solomon was shown very manifestly ; for which reason it is, 
that all men may know the vastness of Solomon's abilities, and how 
he was beloved of God, and that the extraordinary virtues of every 
kind with which the king was endowed, may not be unknown to 
any people under the sun ; for this reason, I say, it is that we have 
proceeded to speak so largely of these matters." J 

* It avails nothing to throw immense mountains from a crater. 

t Anatomy of Melancholy, vol. 1, p. 52-4. ^Antiquities of the Jews, vol. 1, p. 263. 



508 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

As the conditions of all diseases take their rise in the Will, the 
universal tendency of all diseased action is from the centre to the 
circumference, from the inner to the outer life. The divine forces 
constantly tend to drive the deranged forces originating from evil 
loves,»from the plane of the spirit to the plane of the body, and so 
ultimate them through the various excretions and secretions of the 
system. It is only when these functions become weakened by 
being overburdened and thus failing to ultimate the disordering 
forces, that the patient is made painfully aware of the condition of 
his organic structure. 

Physical suffering may be removed in two ways, viz : either by 
exciting such a healthy action of the secretions as to convey the 
diseased elements from the system, or by forcing them back upon 
the plane of the spirit. There are two ways of accomplishing the 
first, and one the latter. First, under favorable conditions, the 
Divine forces may descend through the spirit into the plane of the 
body, and set in order its various functions ; or second, drugs may 
so operate upon these functions as to either neutralize the disease or 
to carry it off by an excessive action of the secretions. This neu- 
tralizing process is accomplished in virtue of the law of similia 
similibus curantur, and is generally practiced by Homoeopathic 
physicians. The excretory process, is the effecting of cures by 
the removal of obstructions, bv administering such drugs and in 
such quantity as shall act topically upon the secretory organs and 
thus aid them in conveying from the system any unusual accumu- 
lation of evil, or disease-generating forces. 

A sudden transition, especially at middle age of life, from a state 
of wickedness to strict obedience to the Divine precepts, is almost 
sure to produce a physical crisis, a crisis sometimes so great as to 
take on alarming symptoms. But as it is the Divine forces setting 
in order the physical constitution, there are no just grounds of any 
fearful apprehensions of the ultimate results. A far better physical 
condition will follow — a condition corresponding to the moral 
improvement. Sometimes there are a succession of these, one rapidly 
following the other ; but on a recovery from each, the patient finds 
himself in a better condition than before, — he finds that God has 
been repairing the injuries which the Devil has made. Thus a 
new constitution is formed out of the dilapidated remains of an old 
one : so that the Lord takes up his abode in the same temple, but 
repaired and renovated, where Satan had long resided. One evil 
after another is driven out as the Lord drove out the money- 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 509 

changers from the Jewish temple, until the individual is freed from 
his spiritual enemies and becomes pervaded by the Holy Ghost, 
which protects him against any further ingress from the hells. 

Moreover, in exact ratio as any individual becomes pervaded by 
the Divine sphere, he becomes potentialized in ability to relieve 
others from their infesting and obsessing demons. Our Lord and 
his Apostles abundantly demonstrated the fact that diseases in almost 
every form may be speedily cured without medicinal agents. The 
sick and obsessed thronged the pathway of Jesus, and he expelled 
the demons which caused and maintained the diseased action ; 
and no sooner was this done, than the effect ceased. True, in 
many instances there was something more to be done than merely 
the casting out of the evil spirit, as in the case of him who was 
born blind, the withered hand, and the lame from his mother's 
womb, etc.; these required not only the expulsion of the demon, 
which caused the malady, but a positive vital force which should 
diffuse new life into the diseased part. These gifts are, to a greater 
or less extent, according to the religious psychological forces of 
the individual, the common endowments of mankind. 

A miracle may be denominated the result of the action of a per- 
sistent force from the Creator operating through such agents as are 
in harmony with it. But having been once established on earth 
they can never cease, only as the conditions through which they 
are effected become impaired or destroyed ; and their power and 
frequency have ever kept pace with the religious condition of the 
age. " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, 
the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these 
shall he do ; because I go to my Father."* Thus implying that 
through his resurrected humanity, after being made one with the 
Supreme Divinity, would descend a miracle-working force which 
would be more potential than even that which he possessed antece- 
dent to his ascension. And I have no doubt that were we to 
become freed from evil and give up all selfish ambition in 
the matter, we should become so permeable to the miracle- 
working power, that the most astonishing results would follow. 
Moral force is the only subduer of evil, the only actual cure of 
disease. Hence, so far from ignoring miraculous cures, the Divine 
forces are the only perfect panacea of human ills — they are no less 
effectual in renovating the body than the soul. 

* John 14 : 12. 
65 



510 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

The miraculous cure of Miss Francourt, by Mr. Graves of Lon- 
don, created an intense interest in the religious community of that 
great city; and grew into a discussion between the Morning 
Watch and the Christian Observer, the latter taking the infidel 
side of the question. Miss Francourt was a cripple, reduced to a 
bed-ridden state, by a curve of the spine, and the painful disorder 
of almost all the joints of her body. She had been lying for 
two years on a couch, padded and curved, to suit her disordered 
form. Her family belonged to the established church, and she was 
herself a thorough Christian person. Her Christian friend, Mr. 
Graves, who, for a long time, had been deeply interested in her, 
called one evening, when the subject of miraculous healing was 
discussed. Mr. Graves was a believer in such gifts, but Mr. Fran- 
court, the father, was not. After a time, he disappeared, and dur- 
ing his absence from the room, Mr. G. arose, as Miss F. supposed, 
to take his leave. But instead of the u good night " she expected, 
he commanded her to stand on her feet and walk. Forthwith she 
rose up, stood, walked, was clear of pains, took on all the charac- 
teristics of a well person, and so continued. 

"I have heard," says Dr. H. Bushnell, " of as many as three 
distinct cases of healing near at hand; one where a father, whose 
nearly grown-up daughter, supposed to be near to death under the 
ravages of brain fever, was permitted, in answer to his prayers, to 
see her rise up almost immediately, and the next day walk forth 
completely well ; one where a bad and dangerous swelling was im- 
mediately cured ; another where a sick man was restored when his 
life was despaired of by his family." 

" In addition to these more domestic examples, I became ac- 
quainted, about two years ago, in a distant part of the world, with 
an English gentleman, whose faith in the gift of healing had been 
established by his own personal exercise of it. He was a man 
whose connections and culture, whose well-formed, tall, and robust 
looking person, whose beautifully simple and humble manners, and 
whose blameless, universally respected life among strangers not of 
the same faith, and knowing him only by his virtues and the sacri- 
fices he was making for his opinions, were so many conspiring 
tokens winning him a character of confidence, that excluded any 
rational distrust of his representations. He gave me a full account 
in manuscript, of some of the cases in which the healing power 
appeared to be given him, with liberty to use them, as may best 
serve the convenience of my present subject. 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 511 

44 It became a question with him, soon after his conversion, 
whether, as he had been healed spiritually, he ought also to expect 
and receive the healing of his body by the same faith ; for he had 
then been an invalid for a long time, with only a slender hope of 
recovery. After a hard struggle of mind, he was able, dismissing 
all of his prescribed remedies, to throw himself on God and was 
immediately and permanently made whole. 

44 At length, one of his children, whom he had with him, away 
from home, was taken ill with a scarlet fever. And 4 now the 
question was,' I give his own Avords, ' what was to be done ? 
The Lord had indeed healed my own sickness, but would he heal 
my son ? I conferred with a brother in the Lord, who, having no 
faith in Christ's healing power, urged me to send instantly for the 
doctor, and dispatched his groom on horseback to fetch him. 
Before the doctor arrived, my mind was filled with revelations on 
the subject. I saw that I had fallen into a snare, by turning away 
from the Lord's healing hand, to lean on medical skill. I felt 
grievously condemned in my conscience. A fear also fell on me, that 
if I persevered in this unbelieving course, my child would die, as 
his oldest brother had. The s}^mptoms in both were precisely 
similar. The doctor arrived. My son, he said, was suffering from 
a scarlet fever, and medicines should be sent immediately. While 
he stood prescribing, I resolved to withdraw the child and cast him 
on the Lord. And when he was gone, I called the nurse and told 
her to take the child into the nursery and lay him on the bed. I 
then fell on my knees, confessing the sin I had committed against 
the Lord's healing power. I also prayed most earnestly that it 
would please my Heavenly Father to forgive my sin, and to show 
that he forgave it, by causing the fever to be rebuked. I received 
a mighty conviction that my prayer was heard, and I arose and 
went to the nursery, at the end of a long passage, to see what the 
Lord had done, and on opening the door, to my astonishment the 
boy was sitting up in his bed, and on seeing me cried out, 4 1 am 
quite well and want to have my dinner.' In an hour he was 
dressed, and well, and eating his dinner ; and when the physic 
arrived it was cast out of the window. Next morning the doctor 
returned, and on meeting me at the garden gate, he said, 4 1 hope 
your son is no worse ?' 4 He is very well, I thank you," said I, 
in reply. 4 What can you mean ?' rejoined the doctor. 4 1 will 
tell you, come in and sit down.' I then told him all that had 
occurred, at which he fairly gasped with surprise. 4 May I see 



512 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

your son ?' he asked. < Certainly, doctor, but I see you do not 
believe.' We proceeded up stairs, and ray son was playing with 
his brother, on the floor. The doctor felt his pulse and said, 
'Yes, the fever is gone !' Finding also a fine, healthy surface on 
his tongue, he added, ' Yes, he is quite well ; I suppose it was the 
crisis of his disease !' 

a Another of the cases which he reports, shows more fully the 
workings of his own mind, on the instant of healing. It was the 
case of a poor man's child, who had heard him advocate the faith 
of healing, and now, that the physicians, after attending him for 
many months of illness, had given the little patient up, saying that 
they could do no more, the parents sent for him, in their extremity, 
to come and heal their son. He replied to the father, ' My dear 
friend, I can not heal your son ; I can do nothing for him. All 
that I can do is to ask you to kneel down and pray with me, to 
Christ, that we may know his will in this matter.' ' He imme- 
diately knelt down with me,' and the writer's account continues, 
6 my prayer was a reminding of the Lord Jesus Christ of his mercy 
to the sick, when he was on the earth, and that he never sent any 
away unhealed. I then presented the petition of the father and 
mother that their son might be healed, and besought the Lord to 
show what was his will in the case. Whilst I -was making the 
supplication, it was revealed to me through the Holy Spirit, that I 
was to lay hands on the boy, and receiving at the time, great faith 
to do so, I arose and, not wishing to be observed by the father, I 
laid my hands on the lad's head, and said in a low tone of voice, — 
' I lay my hand on thee in the name of Jesus Christ.' In an 
instant I saw color rush into his pale cheeks, and it seemed as if a 
glow of health was given, insomuch that I said, involuntarily, ' I 
think your son will recover.' I then hastily left the room. In 
less than an hour, the mother came to my house and insisted on 
seeing me, to tell me the wonderful things that had happened to 
her son. The result was that the boy was about the next day." 

Herr Gassner, a remarkable and celebrated therapeutic, created 
an intense and extensive excitement in Switzerland, during the 
latter half of the 18th century, by the miraculous cures which he 
performed of almost every conceivable disease, upon a vast multi- 
tude of patients. These cures, like those of Valentine Greatrakes 
in the reign of Charles II, of Switzerland ; Herr Richter, in Se- 
licia, some years since ; and the late Madame Saint Amour, in 
France, are said to have been performed in the same manner and 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 513 

upon the same principle, as those of the Apostles, by the same 
faith and power in Jesus Christ. I give the account as abridged 
by Dr. Ennemoser, from Dr. Schlisel's narative as an eye-witness: 

"Gassner, a clergyman from the country of Bludenz,in Vorarl- 
berg, healed many diseases through exorcism. In the year 1758 
he was the clergyman of Klosterle, when by his exorcisms, he be- 
came so celebrated that he drew a vast number of people to him. 
The flocking of the sick from Switzerland, the Tyrol, and Swabia, 
is said to have been so great that the number of invalids was fre- 
quently more than a thousand, and they were, many of them, 
obliged to live under tents. The Austrian government gave its 
assistance, and Gassner now went under the patronage of the 
Bishop of Regensburg, where he continued to work wonders, till, 
finally, Mesmer, on being asked by the Elector of Bavaria, declar- 
ed that Gassner's cures and crises which he so rapidly, and wholly to 
the astonishment of the spectators, produced, consisted in nothing 
more than magnetic-spiritual excitement, of which he gave con- 
vincing proof in the presence of the Elector. Eschenmayer, in 
4 Reiser's Archives,' treats at length of Gassner's method of cure. 

" Gassner's mode of proceeding was as follows : He wore a 
scarlet cloak, and on his neck a silver chain. He usually had in 
his room a window on his left hand, and a crucifix on his right. 
With his face turned toward the patient, he touched the ailing 
part, and commanded that the disease should manifest itself ; which 
was generally the case. He made this both cease and depart by a 
single command. By calling on the name of Jesus, and through 
the faith of the patient, he drove out the devil and disease. But 
every one that desired to be healed must believe, and through faith 
any clergyman may cure devilish diseases, spasms, fainting, mad- 
ness, &c, or free the possessed. Gassner availed himself some- 
times of magnetic manipulations ; he touched the affected part, 
covered it with his hand, and rubbed therewith vigorously both 
head and neck. Gassner spoke chiefly Latin in his operations, and 
the Devil is said often to have understood him perfectly. Physical 
susceptibility, with willing faith and positive physical activity, 
through the command of the Word, was thus the magical cure 
with him. * * * 

Dr. Schlisel relates, that with a highly respectable company he 
traveled to Elwangen, and there saw himself the wonderful cures, 
the fame of which had been spread far and wide, by so many ac- 
counts both in newspapers and separately printed articles ; that he 



514 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

gave himself all possible trouble to notice everything which might, 
in a most distant manner, affect the proceedings of the celebrated 
Herr Gassner. Schlisel, indeed, seems to have been the man — 
from his quiet power of observation, his impartial judgment, and 
thorough medical education, which qualifications are all evident in 
his book — to give a true account of the cures of Gassner, while 
he notices all the circumstances, objections, and opinions, which 
had been brought forward or which presented themselves there. 
On a table stood a crucifix, and at the table sat Gassner on a seat, 
with his right side turned towards the crucifix ; and his face 
towards the patient and towards the spectators also. On his 
shoulder hung a blue, red-flowered cloak ; the rest of his costume 
was clean, simple and modest. A fragment of the cross of the 
Redeemer hung on his breast from a silver chain ; a half-silken 
sash girded his loins. He was forty-eight years of age, of a very 
lovely countenance, cheerful in conversation, serious in command, 
patient in teaching, amiable toward every one, zealous for the 
honor of God, compassionate toward the oppressed, joyful with 
those of strong faith, acute in research, prophetic in symptoms and 
quiet indications ; an excellent theologian, a fine philosopher, an 
admirable physiognomist, and I wish he might possess as good an 
acquaintance with medical physiology as he showed himself to 
have a discrimination in surgical cases. He is in no degree a poli- 
tician ; he is an enemy of sadness, forgiving to his enemies, and 
perfectly regardless of the flatteries of men. For twenty years he 
carried on this heroic conflict against the powers of hell, thirteen 
of these in quietness, but seven publicly. 

Thus armed, he conducted in this room all his public proceed- 
ings, which he continued daily, from early morning to late at night ; 
nay, often till one or two o'clock in the morning. Scarcely do 
those who are seeking help kneel before him, when he enquires 
respecting their native country and their complaints ; then his 
instructions begin in a concise manner, which relates to the stead- 
fastness of faith, and the omnipotent power of the name of Jesus. 
Then he seizes both hands of the kneeling one, and commands with 
a loud and stern voice, the alleged disease to appear. He now 
seizes the affected part — that is, in the gout, the foot ; in paraly- 
sis, the disabled limb and joint ; in head-ache, the head and neck ; 
in those troubled with flatulence, he lays his hand and cloak on 
the stomach : in the narrow-chested, on the heart ; in hsemorrhoi- 
dal complaints, on the spine ; in rheumatic and epileptic he not only 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 515 

lavs hold on each arm, but alternately places both hands, and the 
hands and the cloak together, over the whole head. He excludes 
no sickness, not even epidemic diseases. 

When he has convinced the spectator, and thinks that he has 
sufficiently strengthened the faith and confidence of the sufferer, 
the patient is called upon to repel the attack by the simple thought 
— u Depart from me, in the name of Jesus Christ !" In this con- 
sists his whole method of cure. In commanding the disease to 
appear he calls forth all the infested passions of the patient. Now 
anger is apparent, now patience, now joy, now hate, now love, now 
confusion, now reason, — each carried to its highest pitch. Now this 
one is blind, now he sees, and again is deprived of sight, &c* 

Onr Lord called " unto him his twelve disciples and gave them 
power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all 
manner of sickness and all manner of disease."! No rational person 
will ever pretend to say that this power has ever been withdrawn 
from the Church ; but on the contrary, God's gifts are eternal, and 
in every age are proffered to all who are in a condition to receive 
them. This healing power is not confined to any special form of 
disease ; but it is capable of removing every conceivable ill. 

Again: " I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth 
in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit ; for 
without me ye can do nothing.''^ The fruit-bearing vine does not 
perish until it ceases to bring forth fruit, and the forces of the vine 
are turned in other directions. Whoever becomes fully conjoined 
through faith to the Lord Jesus Christ and ultimates his forces 
through a life of obedience to his commandments, is secured against 
the inroads of hell and disease as soon as the work of regeneration 
is completed. The Divine forces, like a mighty torrent, sweep 
clear across the plane of humanity and keep the individual free 
from every contamination, if he does not prevent their egress. It 
is only by damming up these forces within ourselves, choosing to 
appropriate them rather than to impart them to others, that disease 
and death ensues. 

Stop the Mississippi in its course, and how soon it would desolate 
the country, and its accustomed channels become filled with every 
impurity. Again remove the obstructions, and what accumulated 
filth it sweeps into the gulf. But all the previously inundated 
country now undergoes a complete change. The swamps and 
morasses send up a pestiferous exhalation which changes the whole 

*Howitt's History of Spiritualism, vol. 1, pp. 122-26. tMatt. 10 : 1. JJohn 15 : 6. 



516 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

atmosphere. Precisely so with man ; he is the valley through 
which the Divine forces flow ; forces which have no selfish ends to 
accomplish, any more than the waters which form the river. To 
dam them up by selfishness is to deprive ourselves of their benefits ; 
and when they are again allowed to flow on for the good of others, 
they for a time, leave the body unfitted for a healthy action, and 
disease is the result of the commencement of a regeneration. And 
as often as we become selfish, just so often we shall be compelled 
to bear the consequences of our own evils. 

Is it then any wonder that those persons in whom the work of 
regeneration has commenced, but has not so far progressed as to 
carry them beyond the phase of a continual alternation between 
copious influx of the Holy Spirit and some form of selfishness, are 
often afflicted with more maladies than the persistently vicious, or 
even the professed Christian who never drains his carnal soil by 
imparting to others ? It is fearfully hazardous to ask God for 
more of his grace than we are willing to bestow ; and any inter- 
mitting of this willingness will be sure to prove disastrous to the 
individual. Man cannot place himself in relation with the most 
potent forces of the universe and then play with them, according 
to the caprice of his will, with impunity. If he would become 
the medium of their conduction, he must, for his own safety, allow 
them to find an orderly expression ; for no sooner does he become 
their insulator, than they become deranged in their action upon 
him and he is compelled to bear the consequences of his own posi- 
tion. It is fortunate for us that the Lord, in his providence, largely 
withholds from us what he foresees we will not properly use. Were 
He to prodigally bestow what we are not willing to impart, it 
would become the most effectual means of our destruction. " If 
ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye 
will and it shall be done unto you." * " Is any sick among you ? 
let him call for the elders of the church ; and let them pray over 
him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord ; and the 
prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up ; 
and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." f 
The prescription is simple, positive and certain in its effects, when 
the conditions are right. 

Why then, has the Church lost its healing power ? Has God 
changed the law or revoked his decision ? Nay, but the difficulty 
is, we have too little faith and too much selfishness. The Church 

* John 15: 7. t James 5 : 14-15. 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 517 

in her wanderings after strange gods, and humiliations in conse- 
quence thereof, has been deprived of her power until she shall re- 
turn to her fidelity to the Lord. It is folly to expect that selfish 
men, though seekers after piety to save themselves from miserv, 
will ever be endowed with such potency as can rebuke disease and 
relieve an unfortunate brother. The first consideration would be 
to make a fortune out of the gift. But few, at the present time, 
would care for such a gift unless they could use it to their own ad- 
vantage. 

But I should be doing a great injustice to a large class of indis- 
creet and inconsiderate persons were I to dismiss this point of my 
subject, without pointing out the contrasts between the healing 
influence of the Divine sphere, and the magic influence of demons. 
Their immediate effects are so similar that the public have failed to 
make the proper discrimination between them. There is a degree 
of human wickedness backed up by the infernal host of the lower 
world, which is as capable of performing magic, as is the pure in 
heart, sustained by the Divine influence, of performing miracles. 
The miracles of Moses, and the magic of the magicians of Egypt, 
closely resembled each other. Neither could Moses perform but 
few miracles which were not as readily performed by the adverse 
party ; but no rational person will for a moment suppose that they 
w T ere produced by the same force. The character of the men were 
directly opposite, and the forces which operated through them, 
were no less diverse in principle. One was salutary, setting in 
order the forces'of nature ; the other was disastrous, perverting the 
order of nature. 

A miracle is effected by the descent of the Divine sphere, by 
means of the conjunctive principle of Faith, into the magnetic forces 
which immediately connect with and set in order the electrical, 
from which every condition of the organic structure has* its rise. 
Magic is effected by so focalizing the Satanic forces directly upon 
the electrical currents as to impart to them such intensity of action 
as to subordinate the magnetic principle by which the mental pow- 
ers are controlled. The conditions of a miracle, are faith in the 
Lord and a life of purity. But the conditions of magic is a life of 
sinfulness which results in infidelity. Here is the impassable gulf 
between them; and the intensity of each is as they recede from 
each other. We most unfortunately have existing among us many 
persons who have so yielded their interior plane to familiar spirits, 
that they have become so pervaded and potentialized with the 

66 



518 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

forces of the pit, that they are capable of intensifying the electrical 
forces of the system to such a degree as to force the disease back 
upon the plane of the spirit, to the almost instantaneous relief of 
the body. The patient in no way comprehending the nature of 
the change, and finding himself relieved from physical suffering, 
naturally concludes that a real benefit has been done him, and for 
the time, he knows no real difference between the relief which 
has been afforded him, and an actual miracle. But if we note the 
effect upon such a patient, we shall find that the disease assumes a 
more virulent form on the moral plane than it did on the physical. 

I recently met with a man in New York whom I had previously 
known as a high-toned gentleman, who had just been magically 
cured by a spiritual medium, of a severe case of rheumatism of 
some three years' standing. Knowing that I was hostile to the 
influence of that class of people, he boastingly informed me of his 
remarkable cure, and added that if it was the work of the devil he 
wished we had more of them. I replied by saying that though he 
was relieved of his physical suffering for the present, that he might 
be mistaken in reference to any real good having been done 
him. I then asked him in what lio-ht he viewed the Bible and the 
miracles of the Lord. I had no sooner introduced these than he 
poured forth the most horrid invectives against them that I ever 
listened to. After he had concluded, I simply remarked, " you 
have a worse rheumatism in the soul than you ever had in the 
body ; there has been no cure, only a change of condition from 
bad to worse. You were in danger of losing the body ; but now 
in far greater danger of losing the soul." 

I can conceive of no greater folly than to expect any real bless- 
ing from hell. It is only such as are divested of every moral sense 
that become healing mediums through spiritual influence. And 
the more intensely wicked they are, the more potent they become 
in their unholy mission, — the more disastrous to social interest. I 
will venture to say that no magic can ever be effectually brought 
to bear upon a regenerated person ; for where the Lord has con- 
trol of the magnetic forces, the hells can never produce this 
inverted action. If any viler creatures walk the earth than 
these magic workers and entranced speakers I know not what 
they are ; and whoever yields to their influences must take the 
consequences of the nether world. 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 519 

Hereditary Influence. 

Closely connected with the subject of the laws of health and dis- 
ease, is the influence and predisposition to certain maladies trans- 
mitted by the parents to the child. As the mind is the controlling 
principle of the body, whatever mental and moral conditions the 
parents transmit to the child, will exert a most powerful influence 
over the physical constitution. 

During utero-gestation, the foetus is negative or subordinate, as 
will hereafter be more fully shown, to the mental condition of the 
mother : and as all psychological forces flow from the positive to 
the negative, the necessity for the menstrual flow ceases as soon as 
gestation commences, during which period woman becomes more 
positive, hence less receptive of man's condition than at any other. 
Were it not for this wise provision in her constitution the effects 
would be fearfully disastrous upon the new being ; for were she as 
receptive of man's condition while gestating as at other times, his 
forces would be transferred to the embryo to such an extent as to 
either destroy its existence, or utterly subvert the condition by 
which it could ever be developed into a moral being. 

These remarks apply more especially to psychological forces. 
But it is to be fearfully apprehended that there are frequent coi- 
tions, growing out of mere lecherous desires, even during preg- 
nancy. In every such instance, the woman incorporates the male 
elements, with whatever moral or immoral conditions they contain, 
into her constitution, without any means of ridding herself or her 
unborn babe of its effects. The child, not unfrequently, becomes 
so affected with this disordered condition as to scarcely survive its 
birth, or, if it lives to maturity, it demonstrates to the world the 
injury it has sustained. I am of the opinion, that the lusts of 
parents destroy more children than all other causes combined. 
The lower animals rear their young without difficulty, but man, 
who ought to be stronger than they, finds himself bereft of more 
than half of his progeny before they half reach maturity. To say 
that this is owing to high living, and ill-ventilated apartments, &c, 
is the sheerest folly, gotten up for the want of a proper knowledge of 
the subject here under consideration. Look into community and 
see the terrible work which this sin has made, and if this is not 
enough, go into the grave yards and note upon the tomb-stones the 
ages of its numerous victims, victims who had better be there than 
here. If God calls the infant and youth from time to eternity, it 



520 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

is because He sees that their parents have forced upon them condi- 
tions which ought not to be matured, and they are taken to save 
them and the werld from worse calamities. 

It is a fact established beyond all successful controversy, a fact 
patent to all who will give it the least attention, that the parents 
exert a most powerful influence upon the forming constitution of 
the embryo, and there can be no reason to doubt that every emo- 
tion, however slight, leaves an indelible impression upon the 
future being. 

As the positive forces of the male flow to the female, and es- 
tablish a new action in her, by impregnating her with them ; so 
the spiritual forces ever tend to incorporate themselves into the 
ultimate planes of existence. From this universal law the condi- 
tions of the spirit constantly flow into the fluids of the body, and 
through them, operate upon every function of the system, and 
ultimately become expelled through the mucous glandular and cu- 
taneous structures. It is the conjunction of these forces that pro- 
duces diseases. The electrical forces are subordinate to the mag- 
netic ; the physical to the mental ; so that the electrical forces 
which control the action of the body, become deranged by the de- 
rangement and congestion of the will, — the will governing the 
magnetic, the magnetic the electric. Nor can an individual in- 
dulge in any unholy desires, or angry impulses, without superinduc- 
ing their effect upon the organic functions. That these functions are 
directly influenced by mental emotions, is a matter which does not 
admit of dispute. This is abundantly evinced by the action of the 
mind of the nursing female over the secretion of milk, which has 
so altered its condition as to render it the most fatal of poisons ; 
the blood, too, may be so changed as not to coagulate after being 
drawn from the system. They not only give temporary ex- 
citement, as in the case of the sexual impulses; but also over the 
secreting process, either augmenting or diminishing the quantity, 
and vitiating or improving the quality. The saliva, the gastric 
fluid, the bile, the pancreatic fluid, etc. are all rendered healthy or 
morbid by the action of the mind. 

The effects of the depressing emotions are not less obvious, such 
as the loss of property, friends or character, disappointed affections, 
outrages upon a sensitive conscience, etc.; all of which so impairs 
the action of the organic structure, as to become fatal maladies. 
They not only change the constituent elements of the system, but 
also the configuration of the body and the expression of the coun- 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 521 

tenance. The miser liecomes crooked and crouching in form ; the 
scold pointed in features, quick and impulsive in motion, the arms 
are ill-shapen and shoulders repulsively angular, the gloomy man 
grows more and more constipated, sallow and cadaverous ; and so 
we might extend our observations through every grade of mental 
and moral peculiarity. 

All physical deformities and monstrosities are induced solely by 
the action of the will upon the physical structure deranging the 
nutritive process causing it to make irregular deposits. Any 
powerful impression suddenly brought to bear upon the mother 
during utero-gestation, will leave its effects not only upon the 
mental character, but upon the physical structure of the embryo. 
A deformity of the body thus induced is necessarily a perfect 
representative of a corresponding deformity of the soul. It is folly 
to deny the fact, that as deformities, the causes of which are ante- 
rior to birth, are the effects of psychological influences, the 
mind must necessarily partake of the same deformity, for the 
physical deformity is but the result of the mental — the mind of 
the mother operating upon the yet unconscious mind of the foetus, 
and through it deranging its physical structure. A few examples 
will not only illustrate, but demonstrate the fact here under con- 
sideration. 

A gentleman with whom I was well acquainted, accompanied 
his wife one day into a field to pick berries. Aware of her ex- 
treme timidity of snakes, he humorously threw one at her feet, 
whereupon she was so excessively frightened that, for a long time, 
she could not dismiss the appearance of the reptile from her mind. 
A few weeks subsequently she gave birth to a son which lived to 
the age of 18 years, well formed, but so strongly marked with the 
characteristics of the nature of her fright, that there was no mis- 
taking the connection between the cause and the effect. The move- 
ments and appearance of the eyes and tongue were emphatically 
snakish, and his locomotion was usually performed while lying flat 
upon his belly. He possessed a magic or snakish power in this 
method of locomotion. 

I was once professionally called to visit a girl of eleven years of 
age. From birth, during her wakeful moments, she kept up a con- 
stant nervous movement, augmented by every exciting influence 
brought to bear upon her. Many physicians had visited her, none of 
whom were able to account for the phenomenon. I pronounced it 
a decided case of psychological derangement induced by the 



522 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

mother previous to giving birth to the child, and requested the 
mother to call to mind, if possible, the circumstance which caused 
her child's misfortune. After a few moments' hesitation, she 
remarked with a good deal of earnestness, " I believe the mystery 
is solved ;" and then stated that she had a tame rabbit which was 
a great pet in the family. This pet was struck across the back 
w T ith a fish-pole, by a boy passing in the street. The blow pro- 
duced a violent spasmodic action of the animal, which so excit- 
ed the mother as to cause her to transmit a corresponding condition 
to her child. 

I also visited a boy, eight years of age, residing near Waterville, 
Maine, who was a great wonder to the neighborhood and the pro- 
fession. This boy possessed a good constitution and was not 
inferior to other children in sprightliness and mental ability. As 
I entered the room his head fell back, and he had the appearance 
of passing into a state of complete syncope. He would assume 
this position "as often as suddenly surprised or spoken to by a 
stranger. I asked the mother if she knew the cause of this pecul- 
iarity of her child, to which she replied that she did not. I then 
asked her if previous to his birth there was not some fright which 
caused her to faint; whereupon she exclaimed, " Oh, God, can it 
be !" and related the following circumstance : " Late at night I 
was walking the streets of Waterville, where I was then residing, 
and a stranger, evidently mistaking me for a woman of his acquaint- 
ance, suddenly clasped me in his arms, which so frightened me 
that I screamed and fainted. But being nearly opposite of my house, 
my husband heard the alarm and came to my rescue ; and the 
next recollection I had was in finding myself upon my bed. And 
six weeks afterwards I gave birth to this boy." 

Many years ago, in France, a criminal was to be publicly ex- 
ecuted upon the wheel. And a mother, whose child was yet un- 
born, desired to be present. Notwithstanding the strong entreaties 
of her husband and the physicians to the contrary, she yielded to 
her impulse to witness the execution. The terrible scene com- 
pletely psychologized her. She stood transfixed. She heard the 
bones of the poor criminal snap and break on the wheel, like dry 
sticks in a strong man's hand. It was too horrid ; and she sank 
exhausted, and swooned upon the ground. Ninety days from that 
time, her child was born, iviih 'every bone of its little body separated 
in a corresponding manner. 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 523 

The editors of the Charleston Mercury, say, that they were 
visited a few days since by a gentleman named R. H. Copeland, 
native of Laurense district, S. C, who presents in his peculiar or- 
ganization, a very remarkable natural phenomenon. His right arm, 
hand and right leg are affected in such a manner as to exhibit 
in every movement the nature and motion of a snake. The arm 
affected is smaller than the other, its muscular development differ- 
ent, sensation much less acute, and its actions altogether beyond 
the control of his will. The motion of the arm seemed to be im- 
pelled by a separate and distinct volition, or an instinct entirely its 
own. The character of the movement is shaped, to a considerable 
extent, by external circumstances ; at any sudden noise, startling 
appearance, or the like, the arm sometimes forms itself into a coil 
— the hand darting from the coil as if in the act of striking ; at 
other times the arms and hand have the movements of a snake 
under full headway making his escape, the limb preserving the pe- 
culiar tortuous motion of the reptile. At such times the rapidity 
of the motion is truly astonishing. The action of the affected 
parts is continuous. The muscles are never entirely at rest, though 
sometimes the action is less intense than at others. The right eye 
has a snakish look, which is not to be seen in the left, and in the 
formation of his teeth the contrast is singularly striking. On the 
left side of the mouth, both in the upper and lower jaw, the teeth 
are well formed and regular, while on the right side, above and 
below, they are extremely irregular and fang-like. 

Mr. C. is now 46 years old, and has been thus affected from 
the time of his birth. He is one of those curious cases which some- 
times occur, in which the effects of intense fright with the parent 
are seen in the unnatural organization of the offspring. 

" The following case," says Geo. Combe, '< fell under my own 
observation : — W. B., shoemaker in Portsburg, called and showed 
me his son, aged 18, who is in a state of idiocy. He is simple and 
harmless, but never could do anything for himself. His father said 
that his wife was sound in mind ; that he had other three children 
all sound, and that the only account he could ever give of the con- 
dition of this son was, that he kept a public-house, and some 
months before the birth of this boy, an idiot lad came round with 
a brewer's drayman and helped him to lift the casks off the cart ; 
that that idiot made a strong impression on his wife ; that she com- 
plained that she could not get his appearance removed from her 
mind ; and that she kept out of the way when he came to the 



524 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

house afterwards ; that his son was weak in body from birth, and 
silly in mind, and had the slouched and slovenly appearance of the 
idiot."* 

A mind which will not yield to such evidence, I cannot but re- 
gard as inadequate to properly digest and apply facts. It should 
be remembered that a law which is capable of producing such great 
disasters, is equally capable of accomplishing the most salutary re- 
sults when properly applied. 

It is quite evident that a proper use of psychological principles, 
especially in unfolding the character and constitution of the child, 
will develop almost any description of character or intellect which 
the parent may most desire. In this way the mother can do more 
to reform the world, and make every man a ' law unto himself,' 
than can be done by any other method. The mother needs only 
to be made acquainted with the mental forces of her own constitu- 
tion, to accomplish a moral, social and intellectual elevation, the 
reality of which shall far exceed the fancy of oriental ecstacy."f 

These instances, selected from a great number, will suffice to 
demonstrate the existence of a law which may be available to the 
almost unlimited improvement of mankind. And it is a matter of 
no little surprise that it should have been applied to the improve- 
ment of the lower animals, but entirely overlooked in its applica- 
tion to rational beings. The powers of mind cooperating with 
the impulses, render this law far more effectual with man 
than it can be with the brute. The latter have neither thought by 
which its forces can be guided, nor concentration by which it can 
be rendered persistent during the whole period of gestation. 

To what extent our race is psychologically affected by maternal 
influences it would be difficult to say ; but it is abundantly evident 
that by a critical examination, every mother would be able to dis- 
cover in her offspring the development of the peculiarities under 
w 7 hich she bore it. The great varieties of talents and dispositions, 
which we find among members of the same family, cannot be 
accounted for upon any other principle. The interest which parents 
usually feel in their children, warrants the conclusion that if this 
law were properly understood they would use it to the improve- 
ment of their prospective offsprings. But with the present limited 
knowledge upon this subject, so far from this law being applied to 
the improvement of the race, it now frequently develops depravity, 
if not hideous deformity. 

* Constitution of Man, p. 387. t Hatch's Medical Journal, p. 251-2. 



THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 525 

Malformation or monstrosities, produced by sudden fright 
upon the mother, have been of such frequent occurrence, that it 
has become a general belief among females ; though there are 
many of the medical profession, who, through lack of a proper 
understanding of the relation between the cause and the effect, 
have refused to accept of the innumerable instances which have 
occurred in all ages and among all people, as sufficient that the 
mother can materially affect the physical conditions of the embryo. 
But cases have come under my own observation where pleasurable 
emotions have also been the cause of producing monstrosities. 
Several years since a brother of the Author had in his employ a 
young married couple. During the sixth month of the wife's 
pregnancy she procured a turtle, with which she used to daily amuse 
herself by placing a coal of fire upon its back, to witness its strug- 
gles for relief. In this there was no fright, but for several weeks 

to to ' 

a daily recreation. The birth of the child evinced the folly of the 
mother, for the upper jaw was entirely wanting, there being 
nothing to fill the space between the lower jaw and nose. The 
head was so horridly deformed as to scarcely present any human 
appearance. The nose was merely a fleshy flap with a tooth pro- 
truding from the end. It fortunately survived its birth only two 
weeks. 

Volumes might be filled with such instances, but these must 
suffice. 



CHAPTER XI 



MAN CONSIDERED IN HIS RELATION TO THE INTERIOR AND 
EXTERIOR LIFE. 

If we consider Man as a two-fold being, possessing an inward 
and an outward consciousness, which are distinct from each other, 
the phenomena which we are now to consider, will be compara- 
tively easy to be understood. But it will first be necessary to 
premise our investigation by a few considerations in reference to 
the fundamental principles which are the immediate or proximate 
cause of every phenomena in nature. 

In order for the creation of any particular entity, two things 
are necessary, namely : Will and Direction ; or, if we choose to 
select other terms to express the same idea, we may say that it is 
Love tending to use, and Wisdom directing its effort. These can 
primarily exist only in the Creator, and thence ultimate in a cor- 
relation of universal Activity and Passivity. It would be impossi- 
ble to conceive of any thing in the realm of either Mind or Matter 
that does not involve these two principles. They are the two 
factors of the Deity ; the two factors of universal existence. In 
every mental modification, action and passion are the two necessary 
elements of which it is composed: in every physical change they 
are the correlative factors of the phenomena. 

Faculty denotes an active power ; id quod potest facere, that 
which can effect or can do, — Capacity denotes a passive power, id, 
quod potest fieri, that which can be effected or be done. Operation 
and energy are words that we employ to designate the manifesta- 
tions in which activity is predominant. Affection and passion ex- 
press a condition of suffering, or the capacity of being receptive. 
Both imply action ; one the action of imparting, the other the action 
of receiving. Nor is it possible for either activity to exist without 
the other. To impart, implies a reception ; a reception implies also 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 527 

something imparted. Hence, there is no pure activity ; no pure pas- 
sivity in creation ; but on the contrary, a reciprocal action, differing 
more inform than degree, — a continual action ^nd counter-action, so 
that thev are always active and passive at once. The positive 
phase cannot, strictly, be said to be more active than the passive ; 
but it expresses a faculty or power of imparting or doing ; whereas, 
the passive expresses a power of receiving or containing. Hence, 
receptivity is the necessary antecedent to activity, — activity is the 
necessary correlative of receptivity. 

Every individual entity contains within itself both an impartive 
and a receptive condition ; for this is the force, or rather the 
receptacle of that force by which it was created and its existence 
maintained. But each entity stands in some definite relation to 
certain foreign entities, to which it is either active or passive ; so 
that its tendency is, on the one hand, to become absorbed into 
some other entity ; and on the other, to absorb some foreign entity 
into itself. To maintain a distinct existence, it would be necessary 
that there should be an equilibrium between these two tendencies ; 
a balance between the forces within the entity and those without, 
one of which acts, and the other reacts. But neither in the vege- 
table nor animal kingdom, does such an equilibrium ever exist ; but, 
on the contrary, there is an unceasing and universal tendency to 
either growth or decay. For every germ of a distinct entity 
attracts to itself such qualities as are necessary to its maturity ; 
but no sooner does it reach the ultimate degree of perfection, of 
which its vitality is capable, than its action is reversed and it 
begins to decay. 

The physical structure of man is governed by the same law of 
change, so that he is being constantly wasted and renewed ; but 
with the constitution of the spirit it is different, for in this he has 
been so created as to be immediately receptive of a force which is 
more positive than every other principle in creation, consequently 
subject to no disintegrating law. But gross and obtuse as the body 
is, whatever impress is once made upon it, that impress continues, 
to a greater or less degree, until the termination of the organic 
structure. True, it may under favorable circumstances, be so far 
removed, as to escape further notice ; nevertheless, there remains 
a certain sensitiveness or proclivity to the same evil, which con- 
tinues to the end of life, — the effects are seldom, if ever, wholly 
removed. 



528 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

To say that the mind is more easily affected than the body, is to 
utter a truism which is universally admitted ; so that whatever im- 
press is once made ugon the mind, it goes to make up its individual 
consciousness, and becomes a part of its psychological constitution. 
Hence every thought and event, however trifling it may appear to 
be, is, as will hereafter be more fully shown, indelibly impressed 
upon the human constitution ; and as memory is a spiritual con- 
junction with the objects and events remembered, the earth-life 
becomes the negative or reactive plane of the spirit forever. Nor 
can the spirit, in its moral aspirations, ever transcend the plane of 
its real love during its mundane existence ; for as action and re- 
action are correlative or coopposite forces, there canbe no action 
without reaction, any more than there can be reaction without a 
prior action. Man, in his external consciousness, is always nega- 
tive to his perceptions of an interior spiritual force, so that his will 
becomes the negative plane of his understanding. His perceptions 
of God are the standard of his moral life. But as action and re- 
action are equal, these perceptions are ever changing according to 
the quality of the will. Obedience to Divine requirements pro- 
duces a reactive plane for Divine inspiration, so that we become 
wise in the comprehension of principles, and their adaptation to 
ends, in the degree in which we become negative to the precepts of 
the Creator. It was evidently from this principle that our Lord as- 
sured us, that he that doeth His will shall know of the doctrine.* 
Moreover, the understanding becomes intense in its direction in 
the ratio as its correlative, the will, becomes intense in its action ; 
and the quality of one expresses the quality of the other ; hence 
we do not gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. 

I am aware that we sometimes will what the judgment seems to 
forbid, but the difference between the seeming and the actuality, 
only shows the difference between the interior perceptions and 
social and intellectual restraints. The evil doer may postulate 
that as a general rule it is better to do well than ill ; but he some- 
how persuades himself that his particular case will prove an exception 
to the general rule, — that a mischievous act committed by him is 
really less heinous than it would be if perpetrated by another. 
And in the degree in which he becomes confirmed in evil, either by 
the frequent commission of wrong, or by sophistry, for one is the 
correlative of the other, he ceases to believe his conduct to be de- 
serving of the penalties which the Creator or society have attached 
*John 7: 17. 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 529 

to the infringement of moral order ; and when at last overtaken by 
justice lie cannot free himself from the terrible conviction that he 
is a martyr to a disordered society, or to a revengeful God. 

Between the inmost plane of the mind which immediately con- 
nects with the highest spiritual forces, and the ultimate plane of the 
body which takes cognizance of external objects, individually, there 
is the widest conceivable difference. Nor can there be a free 
and an uninterrupted commerce of thought between these two ex- 
tremes until man is delivered from evil. For by his moral conduct 
he has thrown in such insulators as render it quite impossible for 
him to transmit, at all times, the thoughts of his inner life to the 
plane of his external consciousness. These correlative poles are 
the ypo sit ive and the negative extremities of the human constitution. 

While this is true of the individual, the extreme magnetic poles, 
so to speak, of all moral and intellectual existence, are the Divine 
life on the one extremity, and the Natural life on the other.* 
These, like Spirit and Matter, are correlative forces ; and had not 
sin intercepted between the Divine and the Human, there would 
have been an uninterrupted communication between the two, and 
thence between the outer and the inner consciousness, so that every 
event of the interior life would have freely flowed into the external 
memory. 

It has been abundantly shown in these pages that the Divine life 
is the conjoint action of two principles to which we may give various 
correlative terms, such as Force and Direction, — Faculty and 
Capacity, — Love and Wisdom, — Goodness and Truth, etc. Each 
of these correlatives, so far as applied to Deity, must necessarily 
have the same signification. The term Understanding, as it 
implies comprehending the ideas of another, more properly belongs 
to the human mind. In this sense I shall use it. 

I shall here merely assert, without attempting to prove, that 
man being made in the image of his Creator is receptive of His 
qualities, as the Earth of the influence of the Sun ; but as these 
qualities are coopposite principles, they stand over one against the 
other and must have directly opposite points of ultimate reception, 
— each received by corresponding principles in the individual. 
The ingress of Divine Love is through the human Will ; but the 
ingress of Divine Wisdom is through the human understanding. 

* I here use the term Natural life in contradistinction to a sinful one, for sin is 
unnatural, hence a diseased action, having its origin in the freedom of the human 
will. 



530 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Now there must be some point of union between these two forces, 
— some condition where a copulation takes place and gives birth 
to a third principle. As Nature is one universal system of corre- 
spondences we can easily find an objective illustration which will 
more fully convey to the mind the principle here under consideration. 

In the chapter on Marriage as a Principle, I showed that the 
Sun is an opaque body like the Earth, differing more in properties 
than in substance, but sustains a positive relation to every other 
planet in the solar system ; and that it is by the union of his influ- 
ence with that of the negative orbs, that light and heat are pro- 
duced, — that the medium or point of union is the atmosphere of 
the subordinate planet, upon the purity and transparency of which 
the visibility of the Sun depends. Moreover the atmosphere is not 
a primeval element, but a compound of two simple elements, viz. : 
nitrogen and oxygen ; the former being a receptacle and supporter 
of the properties of light emanating from the Sun ; the latter 
a receptacle and supporter of the properties of heat emanating from 
the earth. Now the similarity of the mode of action of radiant 
heat and light are so striking, — both being subject to the same law 
of reflection, refraction and double refraction and polarization, — 
that it has led some philosophers to suppose that they are modi- 
fications of the same force, rather than correlative forces mutually 
dependent. This peculiarity attends the law of sexuality in every 
department of creation ; for, it is no where a generic difference, 
but a modification of the same force or rather a coopposite force, 
differing in its manifestation only as the masculine differs from the 
feminine. The law of electrical action has hitherto been inexplicable 
on precisely the same principle. The perfect apparent similarity 
between the positive and negative electricities has led many of the 
most eminent electricians to adopt the hypothesis that the electrical 
fluid is rendered evident by its excitation in plus and minus pro- 
portions rather than by divorcing its conjugal properties. 

Moreover, as light and heat are produced by the union of planet- 
ary influences, the intensity of both equally depends upon the con- 
ditions rather than the distance of the subordinate orb. The in- 
tensity of light is wholly governed by the purity of the atmosphere, 
and the negativeness of the planet ; but this purity depends upon 
the conditions of the Earth, which conditions have fheir origin in 
the moral constitution of its inhabitants. But heat being the pe- 
culiar property of the negative planet, is governed more by the 
planet's inclination than by its atmospherical purity ; for, notwith- 
standing its vapors and malaria blur and befog the sky, and ex- 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 531 

elude a portion of the Sun's rays, these are so material that they 
are confined near the surface of the Earth, leaving a large portion 
of its atmosphere to blend with the sphere of the Sun, and the heat 
is conducted from beyond these vapors to the Earth's surface. 

With this brief synopsis of principles before us, we shall be better 
able to understand the constitution and philosophy of the human 
mind : for the analogy between nature and man, when fully com- 
prehended I believe to be perfect, so that between the greatest and 
smallest events, there exists no qualitative but only a qualitative 
difference. 

The Understanding and the Feelings, or the Intellectual and 
Emotional nature, are the sun and the earth of the Human Con- 
stitution. Between these there is the same reciprocal action as 
between the positive and negative planets. The Moral Sentiments 
are the atmosphere of the Emotional principle, and act as the in- 
termediate agent between the Understanding and the Feelings. 
The Sun could exert no direct influence upon the Earth, had the 
Earth no sphere of radiation through which it could absorb the 
sphere of the Sun. Nor would there be any direct connection be- 
tween the Understanding and the Emotions were it not for the 
principle of conscience, or that principle within us which decides 
on the lawfulness or unlawfulness of our own actions and affections ; 
so that Conscience is the plane of temptation, upon which all con- 
tests between right and wrong are decided. In this consists the 
freedom of the Will, in contradistinction to all other creatures. 

Between the outer limits of the Earth's atmosphere and the Sun, 
it is one unbroken scene of blackness of darkness ; for though the 
Sun still continues to send forth its illuminating properties and to 
sustain its own majesty as the static principle of the solar system, 
it is made visible only by the dynamic forces of the satellites whose 
actions obey the mandates of his will. Here mark the distinction : 
it is the sphere of the satellite, and not the satellite itself, that is 
illuminated ; but this illumination is the result of the fidelity of the 
satellite to the positive orb. But the question here arises : Is the 
atmosphere the result of the combined forces of the two orbs, or 
an innate principle of the individual planet ? In other words, is it 
an associated principle dependent upon its relation to other orbs 
for its existence ; or, is it merely independent correlative gases 
held in conjunction with the earth by the force of gravitation ? If 
we could completely insulate the world from the influence of every 
other planet, may we not reasonably conclude that the atmosphere 



532 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

would cease to exist in its present form and the elements of which 
it is composed become absorbed into the substance of the earth ? 
Or, we may put the inquiry in another form, but involving pre- 
cisely the same principle, both upon the material and spiritual 
plane. Could an individual become so insulated from the influence 
of all others that there could be neither touch, thought, nor desire 
of, nor from the opposite sex ; would there emanate from a person 
thus situated anything like a conjugal sphere by which another, 
differing in sex, would be attracted to him or her, either in body 
or spirit ? If truth should compel a negative answer to these ques- 
tions, then it is clearly evident that the sphere of a person, or an 
orb, is the result of the sphere of another, opposite m principle, 
acting upon it, — that they are mutually dependent upon each 
other. The sphere of a body may, therefore, be regarded as the 
affinity which it has for another differing in sex; but this being the 
extension, so to speak, of its most vital forces, the quality of the 
sphere is governed by the conditions of the body from which it 
emanates. 

Now let us imagine an indefinite space between the Understand- 
ing and the Will, the latter surrounded by its own atmosphere of 
Moral Consciousness, receptive of the conditions of the Will on 
the one hand, and of the influence of the Understanding on the 
other, and we have a miniature solar system within the individual. 
The conscience, which is but another name for the Moral Atmos- 
phere of the Will, like the atmosphere of the Earth, is calm and 
transparent, or, tempestuous and opaque, in exact ratio to the 
fidelity of the Will to the directions of the Understanding. The 
Will is but a blind impulse, ever prompting to action, and seeking 
immediate gratification ; but without the least perception of the 
cause of its desires, or the end to be obtained by the indulgence. 
But the static principle of the Understanding, when duly enlight- 
ened, calmly investigates both subjective and objective conditions, 
reasons from cause to effect, and comprehends the relation of 
things, hence, a fit pivotal principle around which the dynamic 
forces of the erratic Emotions should revolve. But no sooner 
does the Will become the positive principle, and loves what wis- 
dom cannot sanction, than it divorces the Understanding and 
marries itself to evil, blurs and befogs the Moral Perceptions, and 
begets sophistry instead of rationality, darkness instead of light, 
folly instead of wisdom, love of self and the world instead of God 
and the neighbor. In this consists the beguiling principle which 



# MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 533 

first deceives the Will, (the woman,) and then, by its darkening 
influence, the Understanding, (the man,) and so inverts the individ- 
ual by making the negative the positive, and the positive the nega- 
tive, and drives him from the Paradise within, wherein the Lord 
God communicates immediately with the soul. It is only the pure 
in heart who see God. 

From the principles here set forth, it will be seen that Con- 
science is formed by the orderly cooperation of the Will and the 
Understanding, and that it can exist only as this order is maintain- 
ed. We shall be better able to comprehend this important truth 
by keeping in view the fact that the negative alone is the recep- 
tive principle, and that it can be rendered fruitful only by the 
positive. Now, as the feminine can never impregnate the mascu- 
line, this order can never be reversed ; but the conditions of recep- 
tivity may be destroyed. The female is receptive of the male 
only as she yields to his demands, and a positiveness on her part 
destroys, for the time, her conditions of fruitfulness. The positive 
and negative forces of the individual mind are governed by pre- 
cisely the same law. The Will, in refusing an acquiescence to the 
demands of the Understanding, assumes a positive attitude to it 
and becomes non-receptive of its directing forces ; and the Under- 
standing, in its turn, fails to receive the inspiring influence of 
the Will ; for the Will, being constitutionally the negative principle, 
is receptive, not only of the Understanding ; but also of the objec- 
tive spiritual and divine forces by which the Understanding be- 
comes illuminated. 

But here it may be objected that, inasmuch as inspiration is 
the highest principle connected with man, and that as this flows 
into the atmosphere of the Will, the Will should become the gov- 
erning instead of the subordinate principle. This objection, how- 
ever, can arise only by failing to make a proper distinction between 
the Will, perse, and the Conscience its atmosphere, which atmosphere 
is formed by the reciprocal action of the Will and the Understand- 
ing. For though Conscience is the immediate receptacle of Divine 
influx — this influx is a correlation of Love and Wisdom, each of 
which becomes identified with corresponding principles in man, so 
that both the positive and negative departments of his nature 
are mutually benefitted by their conjoint action. 

Therefore, as it is the province of Conscience to think what is 
true, and to do what is right, man can become possessed of a real 
Conscience as a basis of divine influx only in the degree in which. 



534 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

lie maintains an orderly life from religious motives. But, so far 
as lie yields to his carnal loves rather than the restraints of wisdom, 
he becomes receptive of an infernal influx which maintains the 
Will in a still more positive relation to the Understanding, until, 
at last, he ceases to become receptive of the elements from which 
a real Conscience is formed ; and to the extent to which this de- 
plorable condition is effected, hatred takes possession of the Will, 
sophistry of the Understanding, and injustice of the Conscience ; 
and thus perverted in every department of his constitution, he 
ceases to be a man, (for a man is an image of God,) and becomes 
a devil. 

Thus the Will and the Understanding, in their orderly condi- 
tion, become the temple of the living God ; — the former the 
habitation of His divine Love, the latter of His divine Wisdom. 
To the perfection of man all things tend, for every thing, both in 
general and particular, have relation to these two faculties, and 
their reciprocal action, — he is the focalization of the converging 
forces of all subordinate existence. Without Understanding, he 
would be a brute ; without Will, he could not exist. Neverthe- 
less, the natural, or unregenerated Will is wholly evil, for it con- 
sists onlv of lust orio-matino; in self-love; and inasmuch as Wisdom 
cannot consort with lust, the natural Understanding can never rise 
higher than the plane of Sophistry. But as man becomes regen- 
erated, his- lust is changed to Love, his Sophistry to Rationality. 

Correlation of Forces. 

In whatever direction we turn our attention, we find a correla- 
tion of forces, — things opposite reciprocally dependent upon each 
other ; and the question very naturally arises : — Is it one and the 
same force that produces the varied phenomena of universal exis- 
tence ? or, we may again ask : — Can there be an actual force with- 
out a correlation of two opposite principles ? — a hill without a valley, 
a hight without depth, light without darkness, heat without cold, 
male without female ? This question is answered in the form of 
the interrogation. Now from whence does this universal conju- 
giality spring ? For what purpose does it exist, and to what end 
does it tend ? As it is but one principle, it can have but one 
origin. Whatever that origin may be, from it all things must have 
sprung, and around it they must forever revolve. And as (a pos- 
teriori) we can determine somewhat of the cause from the effect, 
we may venture to conclude that " the invisible things of Him 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 535 

from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood 
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." 
This universal sexuality in Nature clearly points us to the same 
correlation of forces in tjie Creator. Here, and here alone, we 
find the spring of all action, the direction of all force. Wherever 
we may vibrate the cord of impulse it is one and the same cord, 
one extremity of which is in God as its source, the other terminates 
in Humanity. Here the circle of forces is complete. Man is the 
key by which the cord is tuned, and all nature responds to his 
condition. 

I have before shown that every individual entity, whether it be 
a single particle or a culmination of particles, has within itself both 
a positive and a negative phase of action — that one part is correla- 
tive to the other. Let a magnet, for example, be broken into two or a 
thousand parts, each fragment presents the same phenomenon, 
as the whole, differing only in degree. By the same parity 
of reasoning we may say that God, to whose Divine Esse 
(substance and form or love) appertain Infinity, Immensity, and 
Eternity, on the one hand, as the centrifugal or dynamic force ; 
and to whose Divine Essence (existere, or Truth) Omnip- 
otence, Omniscience and Omnipresence appertain, on the other, as 
the centripetal, or static principle, derived from the infinite Love, 
thus having both faculty and capacity the active and passive phase 
within Himself. He is the One only Being (Ipsum et Unicuni) 
the Central and prime Mover of all that has an existence. The 
Esse of God, though it does not pre-exist, enters into His Essence, 
as Love into the Understanding, and gives it its character or quality. 
In this sense the Essence is posterior to the Esse, not in point of 
time, but condition. The Divine Esse and Existere correspond to 
Space and Time in the natural world. Infinity, Immensity and 
Eternity, pertain to the Divine Esse, and have their birth from the 
Infinite Feminine principle ; whereas, Omnipotence, Omniscience 
and Omnipresence, pertain to the Divine Essence and have their 
birth, not from the Infinite Masculine principle ; but from the cor- 
relation of Infinite Goodness and Infinite Truth. Thus the Di- 
vine Existence as a Unit, in whom all the attributes focalize as one 
Infinite Being, is the correlation of Infinite Love and Infinite 
Wisdom. This is the first distinct Individual Entity. 

The second distinct individual entity, is Creation ; and this is as 
correlative to the first as the component parts of the first are to 
each other. I do not pretend to postulate that God cannot exist 



536 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

without and independent of Nature. This would be beyond all 
human conjecture. It is enough for mortals to know that he does 
not. But we may safely affirm, if I mistake not, that though 
Nature is not God nor any part thereof, i£ is his objective Capacity 
and correlative in the sense of universal Activity and Passivity, — 
hence two distinct entities, one subordinate to the other. The 
parallel of this is everywhere found in creation, and therefore 
offers the strongest possible evidence of the validity of the hypothesis 
here under consideration. Viewed as distinct entities, the male is 
the Faculty of the female ; and the female, in turn, is the Capacity of 
the male. But each contains both faculty and capacity in nearly equal 
degrees, but in an inverse order; the male faculty being external 
and the capacity internal ; but converse to this with the female. 
Now these two principles, not only constitute the individual as a 
whole, mentally and physically, but every minute particle thereof. 
What exists in the effect must previously exist in the cause. 

Were it not that Nature sustained this relation to the Creator, 
no fruitfulness could ever take place ; so that whatever exists, or 
whatever new entities existence takes on, is mediately begotten by 
Deity whose Infinite Faculty impregnates universal creation. In 
the natural sense, He is the Father of the humblest flower that 
blooms unseen, as well as of the bright angelic throng whose coro- 
nets bear evidence of a still more immediate and holy relation. 
View creation in whatever aspect we may, its every phenomenon 
bears the evidence of a derivative occult force which clearly points 
the mind to causes unseen. No true philosophy can ever discard 
the personality of God ; no truly rational mind can ever become 
imbued with the sophistry of pantheism. For everything, when 
viewed through the laws of a Christian philosophy — the deepest 
of all sciences, for philosophy is but religion understood and relig- 
ion is philosophy felt — goes clearly to show that God and Nature 
are not identical ; but like cause and effect, light and heat, male and 
female, are correlative, or have a reciprocal dependence ; Nature 
without God would have no impregnating force nor governing 
principle ; God without Nature would have no ultimate plane of 
use. 

The next correlation of force is the relation of the planetary sys- 
tems. Here we find the operation of the same static and dynamic 
principles that characterizes lesser objects. Stars of the first mag- 
nitude are evidently the suns and pivotal orbs round which 
numerous lesser orbs revolve, each reciprocally dependent upon the 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 537 

other for the order in which they are maintained, and for the 
activity and regulation of those forces which impart vitality to their 
varied productions. Nor can there be any reasonable doubt that 
these suns, with all their retinue of satellites are revolving round 
a still more central sun, and this greatly augmented number, 
round still another, and so on, until we arrive at a final centre 
(if infinity can be said to have a centre,) from which all force is 
more immediately derived. The infinity of Matter is as incompre- 
hensible to the finite mind as the infinity of God. 

When we come upon the plane by which w T e are more immedi- 
ately surrounded and of which we form a part, the same phe- 
nomena are everywhere visible, differing in magnitude rather than 
in quality. There can be no reasonable doubt that every indi- 
vidual particle of matter is governed in all its relations to other 
particles by the same forces and laws that govern the universe as 
a whole ; yea, more, that the mind itself is governed in all its rela- 
tions to the individual and its associations with others by laws no 
less definite and certain in their action. If it be said that this is 
" Fatalism," I reply, that it is the fatalism of the brute and not of 
man; for as God is superior to Nature, so Mind is superior to Mat- 
ter : and by it every man can shape his own destiny as he will. 
Man is the highest force in nature, and to his condition nature 
responds ; and God helps him in every attempt to maintain the 
mastery. So far as he maintains order within his own dominions 
by subordinating his Will to his Understanding, and becomes a ra- 
tional being, he holds a positive relation to both subjective and 
objective material existence, and God being for him, no evil can 
prevail against him. 

The following is the summary of the principles here set forth. 
All forces primarily originate from the cooperation of Infinite 
Love with Infinite Wisdom. The conservation of forces is the 
indestructibility of Divine properties. This is the one fundamen- 
tal truth of all philosophy, — the key which unlocks every avenue 
of Nature. God is the one and the same Active and Passive 
principle — the Static and Dynamic force in Universal Creation. 
Whatever names we may apply to this in the various depart- 
ments of science — Light, Heat, Magnetism, Electricity, Attrac- 
tion, Gravitation, Cohesion, Affinity, etc., — it is still the same Di- 
vine properties operating under every changing circumstance. 
Thus the sole truth which transcends all human experience and all 



538 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

human perception by underlying botli Mind and Matter, is the 
Divinity of Forces. 

The evolution of one force or mode of force into another, has 
been observed by all who can lay any just claim to philosophical 
research, and has induced some of the more profound or more in- 
tuitive to believe, that all the different natural phenomena are the 
result of one force, which is the efficient cause of all the others ; 
but the advocates of this opinion have widely differed in what this 
one force consists. Each have had their postulations ; one desig- 
nating electricity ; another chemical affinity ; a third, heat ; and so 
on ; thus only designating different links in the chain of connec- 
tion between the primeval cause and ultimate effect. Now as it is 
one and the same force that produces the various phenomena, by 
manifesting itself through different, agencies, as has already been 
shown, each mode of force is capable of producing the others, and 
in its turn of being produced by them ; for it only requires an in- 
creased intensity in any particular agency, to so change its usual 
mode of action, that its correlative order becomes reversed — the 
positive taking the place of the negative, and vice versa. 

Dreaming. 

In ordinary profound sleep, which is a state of complete uncon- 
sciousness so far as the external memory is concerned, it is evident 
that the Cerebral Hemispheres, the Sensory Ganglia, and the 
Cerebellum are at rest ; while at the same time the Medulla Oblon- 
gata and Spinal Cord are in complete functional activity. For 
the time being the individual consciousness retires from outward 
scenes and recollections into the interior plane of life, but still per- 
forms its accustomed duties in maintaining the activity of the 
organic functions. The same is the case in profound Coma, result- 
ing from effusion of blood, or from narcotic poisons, but not affect- 
ing the power of breathing or swallowing. The negative phase of 
the mind which is more immediately connected with the organic 
functions, seems to lose none of its characteristics during sleep, how- 
ever deep the sleep may be ; but these functions are carried on the 
same as when aw T ake : the power of deliberate purpose and con- 
secutive movement only is wanting. It may be frequently observed, 
however, that the sleep is not so profound as entirely to suspend 
the consciousness of the individual ; and that various movements of 
an adaptative character are performed, tending to relieve uneasi- 
ness resulting from various causes. In this condition, it seems not 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 539 

improbable, that the sensory ganglia are in some degree awake, 
and that the movements are of an instinctive nature ; — the mind 
of the individual not being sufficiently active to discern the cause of 
the uneasiness, or to employ his intelligence in the removal of it. 

But the state of Somnambulism presents a somewhat different 
phenomenon. During the somnambulic crisis we find that the 
individual is capable of performing consecutive movements, which 
are perfectly adapted to their object ; and it has frequently occurred 
that the sleep-walkers have traversed narrow and difficult paths 
over which they could not have passed in open day when conscious 
of their danger. In this peculiar state there appears to be no con- 
nection between the normal consciousness and the regularity of 
movements. The cerebellum which controls the motor functions 
is evidently completely awake, while at the same time, the mind is 
wholly unconscious of everything save the immediate object to be 
attained ; hence, has no apprehension of danger even while in the 
most perilous situations. The power of balancing the body de- 
pends, to a large extent, upon the degree of fear which attends the 
effort. Were this not the case we should find it no more difficult 
to walk, without falling, a beam suspended 100 feet above the 
ground, than to "walk a curb-stone of the same breadth. In the 
wakeful state the mind takes cognizance of the danger, and its 
trepidations are conveyed from the cerebrum to its negative cor- 
relative, the cerebellum, and disqualifies the latter for the proper 
regulation of the bodily movements. 

As no one has, to my knowledge, ever attempted to explain the 
phenomenon of Dreams and Somnambulism, but only to speak of 
them as a psychological facts, it may be proper here to remark that 
sleep is the result of the change which takes place in consequence 
of the transference of the positive phase of the Mind from one 
plane of action to that of another. During the wakeful state, the 
external plane of consciousness is the Faculty or the active plane 
of life — the id quod potest facere, that which can effect or can do ; 
but during profound sleep just the reverse is the case; what was 
Faculty during sleep, becomes Capacity or passive phase while 
awake — it is now id quod potest fieri, that which can be effected 
or be done ; so that rest is the result of the alternation of the ac- 
tive phase of Mind between the outer and the inner consciousness. 
Moreover, by this alternation between these two states of con- 
sciousness, the Spirit during the natural life, becomes suitably im- 
pressed with the phenomena of both the Material and Spiritual 



540 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

worlds, and their relation to each other. This is the more readily 
understood as soon as we discard the ridiculous idea that the Spirit- 
ual world is a locality rather than a state of existence. Man con- 
tains the elements of both worlds within himself; in fact, he is the 
compound of the two, sustained by a force from which both origi- 
nated. His Moral nature, being the highest principle of the Spirit, 
is alone immediately receptive of immortality. Philosophically, it 
would be impossible for man to exist without being continuously 
receptive of a Divine force ; nor can we conceive it possible for him 
ever to pass beyond the conditions of his material existence ; for 
his ruling loves, while connected with the body, determine his 
character forever. The unjust, the filthy, the righteous and the 
holy, must still so remain. 

Everything pertaining to the events of both the Material and 
Spiritual worlds which is once brought into either the outer or 
inner consciousness of the individual, focalizes itself in the memory, 
which memory is as enduring as the spirit itself; so that the spirit 
lives in a continual consciousness of its material existence, whether 
that existence has been orderly or otherwise. This conservative 
principle of the mind will be abundantly shown in the various phe- 
nomena which will be presented in the course of fhis essay. "All 
the cognitions which we possess, or have possessed, still remain to 
us, — the whole complement of all our knowledge still lies in our 
memory ; but as new acquisitions are still passing in upon the old, 
and continually taking place along with them among the modifica- 
tions of the ego, the old cognitions, unless from time to time 
refreshed and brought forward, are driven back, and become 
gradually fainter and more obscure. This obscuration is not, how- 
ever, to be conceived as an obliteration, or as a total annihilation. 
The obscuration, the delitescence of mental activities, is explained 
by the weakening of the degree in which they affect our self-con- 
sciousness or internal sense. An activity becomes obscure, because 
it is no longer able adequately to effect this."* 

Hence the disappearance of the internal energies from the view 
of external perceptions, does not warrant the conclusion, that they 
no longer exist ; for we are not always conscious of all the mental 
energies, whose existence cannot be disallowed. Only the more 
vivid changes sufficiently affect our consciousness to become objects 
of its apprehension ; we, consequently, are only conscious of the 
more prominent series of changes in our internal state ; the others 

*H. Schmi4 ? Metaphysics, p. 235. 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 541 

remaining for the most part latent. Thus we take note of our 
memory only in its influence on our consciousness ; and, in gener- 
al, do not consider that the immense proportion of our intellectual 
possessions consists of our delitesceal cognitions. 

But it may be proper here to remark, that by Memory or Re- 
tention, is implied the condition of Reproduction ; so that Memory 
proper is really a Capacity, or a passive power, rather than a Fac- 
ulty or an active power. And as Memory denotes the power 
which the mind possesses of retaining hold of the knowledge it 
has acquired, strictly speaking, it is the Conservative faculty, and 
the correlative of the Acquisitive faculty, — it is the womb into 
which the Acquisitive faculty deposits all its observations, and 
which gives birth to all consecutive thought and successive con- 
sciousness. Acquisition and Memory, like Perception and Sensa- 
tion, are coexistent principles. They are equally original, and 
neither can exist only as they coexist. It is the Conservative fac- 
ulties alone that give continuity to Self-Consciousness, and the 
perfection of this consciousness is in exact ratio to the perfection 
of the Interior Memory. Were this not the case we could not 
know that the ego (self) of to-day was the ego of yesterday — 
every moment' of time would be apparently disconnected from 
every other; nor could we in passing into another world have the 
least recollection of any previous existence. The moral bearings 
of any conduct, or the circumstances of any transaction, could not 
extend a moment beyond the duration of their actual existence ; 
every sound would become an incomprehensible noise, as we should 
have no ability of associating it with any previous sound ; every 
object would be a new and an undefined object, as often as we 
looked upon it or touched it ; for we could not associate it with 
any previous observation or contrast it with any other object, — 
everything, in short, would be forgotten as soon as conceived. 

It is, therefore, evident that any attempt — as has been the case 
with some of the Scottish philosophers — to reduce Self-Conscious- 
ness to a special faculty, or to distinguish Perception or any one or 
all of the Special Faculties from Consciousness, must necessarily 
ever prove a failure. This faculty of Internal Experience here 
denominated Self-Consciousness, is the conclusion, or final expres- 
sion of all the faculties of the individual ; hence, it is only by the 
preservation of all the faculties that Consciousness is maintained. 
Whenever any one of the faculties ceases its operations, Con- 
sciousness, so far as that faculty is concerned, ceases to exist. 

69 



542 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

One consideration more upon this point. As has been remarked 
by Sir William Hamilton, — " Perception is the power by which 
we are made aware of the phenomena of the external world ; 
Self-Consciousness, the power by which we apprehend the phe- 
nomena of the internal. The objects of the former are all pre- 
sented to us in Space and Time ; space and time are thus the two 
conditions, — the two fundamental forms of external perception. 
The objects of the latter are all apprehended by us in Time and in 
Self; time and self are thus the two conditions, — the two funda- 
mental forms of Internal Perception, or Self-Consciousness. 
Time is thus a form or condition common to both functions ; while 
space is a form peculiar to one, self a form peculiar to the other. 
What I mean by the form or condition of a faculty, is that frame 
— that setting, (if I may so speak,) out of which no object can be 
known. Thus we only know, through Self-Consciousness, the 
phenomena of the internal world, as manifestations of the indivis- 
ible ego or conscious unit ; we only know, through Perception, the 
phenomena of the external world, under space, or as modifications 
of the extended and divisible non-ego or known plurality. That 
the forms are native, not adventitious, to the mind, is involved in 
their necessity. What I cannot but think, must be a priori, or 
original to thought ; it cannot be engendered by experience upon 
custom."* 

From these considerations, it will be seen that Memory forms 
the Material basis of the mind, and becomes its reactive plane, 
both while we are asleep, and after the body ceases to exist, so 
that the Moral condition of this life becomes the basis of the Spirit- 
ual condition of the next. In fact, profound sleep is a psychologi- 
cal state so closely allied to physical death, that waking becomes a 
daily resurrection. It is not here pretended to say, that the mind 
has become dormant, or so completely retired from the body as not 
to maintain its guardianship over it ; but that it has retired so 
within the Interior consciousness that it approximates toward the 
state of physical death ; but its activity on this interior plane may 
be more intense than while awake. In this condition it is only the 
most negative or involuntary phase of the mind that sustains the 
operations of the bodily functions. 

The phenomena of Dreaming and Somnambulism evidently take 
place during an intermediate condition between sleep and awake — 
the Cerebrum at the time being in a state of partial activity. One 
* Metaphysics p. 401. 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 543 

idea calls up another, according to their previous association, but 
as some of the mental faculties are not sufficiently awake to pro- 
perly participate in the exercise, the most incongruous combinations 
are frequently the result ; and though no new train of reflection 
may be started, the classification of old ideas is such as to leave 
upon the mind the impression that they were nearly original 
thoughts. 

Kant distinctly maintains that we always dream when we sleep; 
that to cease to dream would be to cease to live ; and that those 
who fancy that they have not dreamed, have only forgotten their 
dream. And in a compilation from notes taken at his lectures on 
Anthropology, it is further stated that we can dream more in a 
minute than we can act during a day, and that the great rapidity 
of the train of thought in sleep, is one of the principal causes why 
we do not always recollect what we dream. He elsewhere also 
observes that the cessation of a force to act is tantamount to a ces- 
sation to be. 

But the correctness of this statement depends upon the answer 
which future discovery may yet give to the old mooted question, 
whether the mind is always in a state of conscious activity. Thus 
far, philosophers have rested more upon theory than experience. 
Plato and his followers w T ere unanimous in maintaining the contin- 
ual energy of intellect. The statements of Aristotle upon this 
subject, are somewhat ambiguous, so that passages may be quoted 
from his works in favor of either alternative. Some of the Aris- 
totleians were opposed, and some were favorable to the Platonic 
doctrine. Descartes made the very existence, or what we should 
denominate the esse of the soul, to consist of actual thought, under 
which he included even the desires and feelings ; and thought, he 
defined to be all of which we are conscious. This is tantamount to 
saying that as the mind always thinks it is always conscious. Male- 
branche also assumes our consciousness in sleep, and attempts to 
explain our oblivion only by a mechanical hypothesis. All was 
theoretical rather than demonstrative with those philosophers ; — 
they assumed rather than proved their positions by an appeal to 
fact and experience. 

Mr. Locke, on the contrary, attempted to show that no finite 
being, or at least the soul of man, can ever maintain an unceasing 
activity, and that it is no more necessary for the soul always to think 
than for the body always to move. The following is the sum of 
his arguments upon this point. " It is an opinion that the soul 



544 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

always thinks, and that it has the actual perception of ideas in itself 
constantly, as long as it exists ; and that actual thinking is as 
inseparable from the soul, as actual extension is from the body ; 
which if true, to inquire after the beginning of a man's ideas, is the 
same as to inquire after the beginning of his soul. For by this 
account, soul and its ideas, as body and its extension, will begin to 
exist both at the same time. 

u But whether the soul be supposed to exist antecedent to, or 
coeval with, or some time after, the first rudiments, or organiza- 
tion, or the beginnings of life in the body, I leave to be disputed by 
those who have better thought of that matter. I confess mvself 
to have one of those dull souls that doth not perceive itself always 
to contemplate ideas ; nor can conceive it any more necessary for 
the soul always to think than -for the body always to move ; the 
perception of ideas being, (as I conceive,) to the soul, what motion 
is to the body ; not its essence, but one of its operations. And, 
therefore, though thinking be supposed ever so much the proper 
action of the soul, yet it is not necessary to suppose that 
it should be always thinking, always in action. That, perhaps, is 
the privilege of the infinite Author and Preserver of things, who 
never slumbers nor sleeps : but is not competent to any finite 
being, at least not to the soul of man. We know certainly by 
experience that we sometimes think, and thence draw this infallible 
consequence, that there is something in us that has a power to 
think ; but whether that substance perpetually thinks or no, we 
can be no further assured than experience informs us. For to say 
that actual thinking is essential to the soul, and inseparable from it, is 
to beg what is in question, and not to prove it by reason ; which is 
necessary to be done if it be not a self-evident proposition. But 
whether this, 'that the soul always thinks' be a self-evident propo- 
sition, that everybody assents to at first hearing, I appeal to man- 
kind. It is doubted whether I thought all last night or no ; the 
question being about a matter of fact, it is begging it to bring as a 
proof for it an hypothesis which is the very thing in dispute ; by 
which way one may prove anything ; and it is but supposing that 
all watches, whilst the balance beats, think ; and it is sufficiently 
proved, and past doubt, that my watch thought all last night. But 
he that would not deceive himself, ought to build his hypothesis on 
matter of fact, and make it out by sensible experience, and not pre- 
sume on matter of fact, because of his hypothesis ; that is because 
he supposes it to be so ; which way of proving amounts to this, 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 545 

that I must necessarily think all last night because another supposes 
I always think, though I myself cannot perceive that I always do 
so." * * * « it will perhaps be said that ' the soul thinks even in 
the soundest sleep, but the memory retains it not.' That the soul 
in a sleeping man should be this moment busy a-thinking, and the 
next moment in a waking man, and he not remember nor be able 
to recollect one jot of all those thoughts, is very hard to be received, 
and would need some better proof than bare assertion to make it 
be believed. For who can, without any more ado but being barely 
told so, imagine that the greatest part of men do, during all their 
lives for several hours every day, think of something which, if they 
were asked even in the middle of these thoughts, they could re- 
member nothing at all of? Most men, I think, pass a great part 
of their sleep without dreaming." * * * 

" If they say that a man is always conscious to himself of think- 
ing ; I ask how they know it ? Consciousness is the perception of 
■what passes in a man's own mind. Can another man perceive 
that I am conscious of any thing, when I perceive it not myself ? 
No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience. Wake a 
man out of a sound sleep and ask him w T hat he was that moment 
thinking on. If he himself be conscious of nothing he then thought 
on, he must be a notable diviner of thoughts that can assure him 
that he was thinking ; may he not with more reason assure him he 
was not asleep ? This is something beyond philosophy ; and it 
cannot be less than revelation that discovers to another, thoughts 
in my mind, when I can find none there myself; and they must 
needs have a penetrating sight who can certainly see what I think 
when I cannot perceive it myself, and when I declare I do not. 

This decision of Locke is without the least foundation, and it ap- 
pears to me, that it utterly fails to display his usual sagacity of 
thought, or strength of argument. A wakeful and a sleeping 
state are tw T o distinct psychological conditions, and it is abundantly 
proven by various mental phenomena, of which I shall furnish am- 
ple illustrations, that the mind may be intensely active in one state 
and wholly unable to carry any remembrance of it into the other. A 
state of Somnambulism or Sleep-waking, in which the individual 
manifests all the ordinary powers of his mind, but remembers noth- 
ing of what has passed when restored to his natural waking state, 
is an emphatic refutation of the speculations of Locke upon this 
subject. In this remarkable state, the mental faculties are usually 

* Essay, book II, chapt. 1, sec. C, 10, 14, et seq. 






546 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

more lucid, the expression more correct, and the movements more 
precise than in the natural. The patient speaks languages of which 
when awake he remembers not a word. The imagination, the 
sense of propriety, and the faculty of reasoning are all in exalta- 
tion. Indeed, it has frequently occurred, that the power of bal- 
ancing the body has been so remarkably executed in this condi- 
tion, that sleep-walkers have traversed narrow and difficult paths, 
over which they could not have passed in open day, when conscious 
of their danger. 

I have frequently been conscious of a vividness of thought and 
a clearness of expression during sleep, that far surpassed anything 
I have ever been able to attain to during my most wakeful mo- 
ments ; and I doubt not, that this has been the experience of 
many. Dr. Abercrombie relates that an eminent lawyer had been 
consulted respecting a case of great difficulty and importance, and 
after several days of intense attention to the subject, he got up in 
his sleep and wrote a long paper. The following morning he told 
his wife that he had a most interesting dream, and that he would 
give anything to receive the train of thought which had then 
passed through his mind. She directed him to his writing desk, 
where he found his opinion clearly and luminously written out. 
Dr. Haycock, Professor of Medicine, in Oxford, would give out a 
text, and deliver a good sermon on it in his sleep, but was incapa- 
ble of such a discourse when awake. "I knew a clergyman,'' 
says Dr. Moore, u of fine intellect, who was remarkable for fits of 
hesitancy in preaching ; but who, in his dreams, was accustomed 
to express himself with unction and most fluent eloquence." 

Sir William Hamilton makes the following remarks as the result 
of his own observations upon the subject under consideration : 
u I have always observed," says he, " that when suddenly awak- 
ened during sleep, (and to ascertain the fact I have caused myself 
to be roused at different seasons of the night,) I have always been 
able to observe that I was in the middle of a dream. The recol- 
lection of this dream was not always equally vivid. On some 
occasions, I was able to trace it back until the train was gradually 
lost at a remote distance ; on others, I was hardly aware of more 
than one or two of the latter links of the chain ; and sometimes 
was scarce certain of more than the fact that I was not awakened 
from an unconscious state. Why we should not always be able to 
recollect our dreams, it is not difficult to explain. In our waking 
and our sleeping states, we are placed in two worlds of thought, 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 547 

not only different but contrasted, and contrasted both in the char- 
acter and in the intensity of their representations. When snatched 
suddenly from the twilight of our sleeping imaginations, and 
placed in the meridian lustre of our waking perceptions, the neces- 
sary effect of the transition is at once to eclipse or obliterate the 
traces of our dreams. The act itself also of rousing us from 
sleep, by abruptly interrupting the current of our thoughts, throws 
us into confusion, disqualifies us for a time from recollection, and 
before we have recovered from our consternation, what we could 
at first have easily discerned is fled or flying."* 

Closely allied to this, is that peculiar though common mode of 
thought, when the mind seems to retire into the inner plane of 
life, so as to become, for the moment, wholly abstracted from ex- 
ternal observation ; and though the eye may be gazing directly at 
an object, the mind takes no cognizance of its presence. If sud- 
denly aroused by being asked what we are thinking of, the con- 
nection between the inner thought and the external memory, is 
not unfrequently broken, so that we lose the subject of contempla- 
tion, and we reply that we were thinking of nothing. 

We have all experienced the disturbance to our sleep, which 
arises from conditions to which we are unaccustomed. The mind 
can become inured to noises, so that they produce no disturbance 
to our rest, while, at the same time, any new noise with which it is 
not familiar, or the cessation of an old one to which we have long 
been accustomed, will suddenly arouse us from a sound sleep. 
For example, the racket of a mill will keep a stranger awake ; its 
cessation will awaken the miller. Every one knows that it is diffi- 
cult to fix our attention on a book, when surrounded by persons 
engaged in conversation ; at length, however, we. acquire this fac- 
ulty. It would be easy to extend these observations into every de- 
partment of life. 

u I have never w r ell understood," says Jouffroy, an eminent 
French physiologist, u those who admit that in sleep the mind is 
dormant. When we dream, we are assuredly asleep, and assuredly 
also that our mind is not asleep, because it thinks ; it is, therefore, 
manifest, that the mind frequently wakes when the senses are in 
slumber. But this does not prove that it never sleeps along with 
them. To sleep is for the mind not to dream ; and it is impossible 
to establish the fact, that there are in sleep moments in which the 
mind does not dream. To have no recollection of our dreams, 

* Lectures on Metaphysics p. 225. 



548 



THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 



does not prove that we have not dreamt ; for it can often be proved 
that we have dreamt, although the dream has left no trace on our 
memory. The fact, then, that the mind sometimes wakes while 
the senses are asleep, is thus established ; whereas, the fact that it 
sometimes sleeps along with them, is not ; the probability, there- 
fore is, that it wakes always. It would require contradictory facts 
to destroy the force of this induction, which, on the contrary, 
every fact seems to confirm. They manifestly imply this conclu- 
sion, that the mind, during sleep, is not in a peculiar state, but 
that its activity is carried on precisely as when awake." 

Now, this whole controversy turns upon the question, can we be 
mentally conscious in one state and not retain any memory of it 
when we pass into another? In other words, does the inner and 
the outer life so completely blend that each, at all times, takes 
cognizance of the doings of the other ? or, is the gulf between them 
so completely bridged over that there is an uninterrupted commerce 
between the two ? 

To me it is clearly evident that the torpidity of the senses does 
not necessarily imply an unconscious state of the mind. In proof 
of this, we have many examples where the senses are so completely 
under the influence of anesthetic agents that the most painful 
operations are performed upon the body without any conscious suf- 
fering to the patient — the mind, at the same time, stimulated into 
an unusual activity. Animal magnetism has not unfrequently " 
produced the same results. And then again, persons have been 
known to alternate between two distinct or different states of con- 
sciousness, forgetting in each all they had learned that had trans- 
pired in the other. Now upon what principles can these, and 
other phenomena of the same general character, be accounted for ? 
How can the mind, on the one hand, be intensely active without 
the external memory taking cognizance of the fact ? and on the 
other, how can the body severely suffer without any corresponding 
suffering on the part of the mind ? 

There is abundant evidence scattered through the world ; but 
which has never, so far as I am aware, been compiled into a vol- 
ume, that the mind contains certain systems of knowledge, or cer- 
tain habits of action, which it is wholly unconscious of possessing 
in its ordinary state ; but which are revealed to consciousness in 
certain extraordinary exaltation of its powers. The evidence on 
this point shows that in certain abnormal states, as entrancement, 
febrile delirium, madness, somnambulism, ecstacy, etc., the mind 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 549 

frequently contains whole systems of knowledge, which, though in 
our normal state they have faded into absolute oblivion, suddenly 
flash out into luminous consciousness which far transcends the 
normal ability. In these conditions, the order more frequently 
becomes reversed, so that what is known in the conscious state 
becomes eclipsed or extinguished in the unconscious state, and vice 
versa. Unquestionably this phenomenon of latent powers is one of 
the most interesting and marvelous in the whole compass of phi- 
losophy ; and one which, when perfectly understood, will become 
a key to unlock most of the mysteries of life, and largely reveal 
to us the terrible realities of an immortal existence, 

I shall now proceed to demonstrate by the proper evidence, the 
truth of the thesis here set forth ; and in doing this, I shall select 
such facts only, as most forcibly illustrate the principles under con- 
sideration. 

One of the most prominent features of the present age, is the 
frequency of those abnormal psychological conditions, which are 
induced by Animal Magnetism, and its correlary Spiritual Excita- 
tions. As they are clearly mental phenomena, I can see no im- 
propriety in attributing them to either mundane or spiritual causes. 
For it should be borne in mind that in either case they are the 
effect of the spirit acting upon spirit, and that the control of the 
functions of the body is the result of the action of its own spirit 
intensified, to a greater or less degree, by the concentrated forces of 
another. Hence, if it be true that man has a conscious existence 
beyond the grave, and that the spiritual world is a state, rather than 
a restricted locality, I know of no good reason why the mental 
spheres of that world are not as well able to control the modes 
and actions of this, so far as we become negative to, and conse- 
quently receptive of, their influence, as though they were yet in 
the body. In either case the phenomenon is the same ; and the 
patient is evidently influenced by a force foreign to himself. Ani- 
mal Magnetism preceded and prepared the way for Spiritual ob- 
sessions, and in this case they are strictly correlative terms. 

Nevertheless, there is a slight distinction to be made between 
them, — one which it maybe proper here to designate. The spirit, 
like the body, has both a positive and negative phase of action. 
Now if we apply the continued force of an electro-magnetic ma- 
chine to the negative extremity of a magnetized bar of steel, it re- 
verses the action of the force contained within the bar, so that the 
negative pole is changed into a positive, and the positive into a 



550 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

negative. In other words, a correlative force applied to the neg- 
ative extremity, that is superior to the force contained in the posi- 
tive extremity, excites the negative into an intensity of action which 
is more than paramount to that of the positive ; so that the extrem- 
ity which previously attracted a negative force, now attracts a pos- 
itive one, and vice versa. This being a fundamental principle in 
nature, it has a universal application. 

Now let us apply this law to the phenomena under considera- 
tion. In Animal Magnetism the will-force of the operator is 
applied directly to the physical system by actual contact with 
his subject, and through it controls the negative spiritual forces ; 
i. e. the spiritual forces immediately positive to the body,, but neg- 
ative to the more interior plane of the mind. If the will of the 
operator is sufficiently strong to subdue the positive forces of the 
spirit also, the subject becomes completely obsessed, — even on the 
interior plane, — by his operator, — thinks his thoughts and acts 
his will. Thus, having for the time being, inverted the order of 
his nature, he is now in immediate relation with the subordinate 
causes of nature, rather than their ultimate effects ; so that when 
called upon to explore the regions of philosophy, he does so with 
r skill that far transcends his normal ability. But, as the positive 
phase of the mind was rendered subordinate to the negative, how- 
ever active the negative may have been during the reversion, he 
remembers nothing of what had then transpired when he is again 
restored to his normal consciousness. 

But a spirit operator, being divested of his material body, is in 
immediate relation with the negative side of the spirit of his sub- 
ject, so that when an individual holds himself passive to the will 
of the operating spirit, the exterior will of the subject becomes 
controlled, and through that the body. Or the individual may, 
through the influence of his own habitual depravity, become so 
absorbent of an obsessing magnetic sphere, that his will shall 
cooperate with the will of his familiar spirit. In every such case 
the fiend and the man go on together ; for like seeks like in every 
realm of being. Relations and associations are determined by 
established sympathies. Ringdoves in the woods coo in responsive 
voices ; wolves and jackals hunt in packs together. Man is no 
less gregarious in his appetites and sympathies. 

Many cases have come under my own observation where the 
victim was so completely under the influence of some invisible 
agency, as to be used in a manner most shocking to behold, and 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 551 

apparently without the least power of resistance : somdptheir bodies 
were thrown into frightful contortions ; others, their tongues used 
to give expression to the vilest utterances. Several of these have 
assured me that there was an interior consciousness of their dis- 
orders and a resistance to them ; but, for the time, they could not 
make this resistance available to the control of their expressions or 
actions. During the continuance of the paroxysm, the interior 
consciousness and external disorders seemed to be completely 
divorced from each other, so that whatever will there might have 
been upon the interior plane, it was unable to leap the gulf between 
the inner and outer life. But if the action brought to bear upon 
the negative phase of the spirit of the sufferer is sufficiently intense 
and long continued, it also renders the interior plane, # as well as 
the outward act, subordinate to its tension. No sooner doe's this 
take place than the mind is led to ignore all moral distinction 
between vice and virtue, and to yield an unrestrained indulgence 
to every impure desire. Examples of this are painfully numerous. 
But this can never be effected so long as the victim of infestations 
obediently and trustfully looks to the Lord for strength and. pro- 
tection ; for, by so doing, he incorporates into the most interior 
plane of life, a divine force, which is infinitely more positive than 
all which can be brought to bear against it. 

During these enhancements the patient will discourse by the hour, 
either in public or private, answering and propounding questions 
in a manner that wholly transcended their mental acumen while 
in their normal condition ; but many of them retain no memory of 
such dissertations or conversations subsequent to their return to 
external consciousness. I once knew a young woman of most 
vicious habits, who was almost daily and sometimes several times 
per day, subject to this peculiar malady ; and, strange to say, she 
courted rather than sought to rid herself of this fearful condition. 
While entranced she was able, even from her early youth, to main- 
tain a conversation with the best read minds upon philosophical 
and metaphysical subjects, even in reference to points, as I am w r ell 
convinced, to which she had never given a moment's reflection. 
She would also execute music in a manner which wholly tran- 
scended her usual ability, and sing, without the least hesitation, 
songs of great length, of which she could repeat scarcely a line in 
her normal state ; but more frequently she would compose both 
the music and the words impromptu. These remarkable gifts com- 
bined with such unusual depravity — for she ignored all distinction 



552 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

between vi#e and virtue — left no doubt in the mind of many who 
listened to her, that she was either possessed of the Devil, or was 
an oracle of familiar spirits. 

A highly interesting case in illustration of the effects of disease 
upon double consciousness, is given by Mr. Coleridge in his JBio- 
graphia Liter aria. 

" It occurred," he remarks, " in a Roman Catholic town in 
Germany, a year or two before my arrival at Gottingen, and had 
not then ceased to be a frequent subject of conversation. A young 
woman of four and twenty, who could neither read nor write, was 
seized with a nervous fever ; during which, according to the assev- 
erations of all the priests and monks in the neighborhood, she 
became possessed, and, as it appeared, by a very learned devil. 
She continued incessantly talking Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, in 
very pompous tones, and with most distinct enunciation. This 
possession was rendered more probable by the known fact that she 
w'as or had been a heretic. Voltaire humorously advised the devil 
to decline all acquaintance with medical men ; and it would have 
been more to his reputation, if he had taken this advice in the 
present instance. The case had attracted the particular attention 
of a young physician, and by his statement many eminent physi- 
ologists and psychologists visited the town and cross-examined the 
case on the spot. Sheets full of her ravings were taken down 
from her own mouth, and were found to consist of sentences, co- 
herent and intelligible each for itself, but with little or no connec- 
tion with each other. Of the Hebrew, a small portion only could 
be traced to the Bible, the remainder seemed to be in the Rabbini- 
cal dialect. All trick or conspiracy was out of the question. 
Not only had the young woman ever been a simple harmless crea- 
ture ; but she was evidently kboring under a nervous fever. In 
the time in which she had been resident for many years as servant 
in different families, no solution presented itself. The young 
physician, however, determined to trace her past life step by step ; 
for the patient herself was incapable of returning a rational 
answer. He, at length, succeeded in discovering the place where 
her parents had lived ; traveled thither, found them dead, but an 
uncle surviving; and from him learned that the patient had been 
charitably taken by an old Protestant pastor at nine years old, and 
had remained with him some years, even till the old man's death. 
Of this pastor the uncle knew nothing, but that he was a very 
good man. With great difficulty, and after much search, our 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 553 

young medical philosopher discovered a niece of the patient's who 
had lived with him as his house-keeper, and had inherited his effects. 
She remembered the girl ; related that her venerable uncle had 
been too indulgent and could not bear to have the girl scolded ; 
that she was willing to have kept her, but that, after her patron's 
death, the girl herself refused to stay. Anxious inquiries were 
then, of course, made concerning the patron's habits, and the solu- 
tion of the phenomenon was soon obtained. For it appeared that 
it had been the old man's custom, for years, to walk up and down 
a passage of his house into which the kitchen-door opened, and to 
read to himself, with a loud voice, out of his favorite book?. A 
considerable number of these were still in the niece's possession. 
She added, that he was a very learned man, and a great Hebraist. 
Among the books were found a collection of Rabbinical writings, 
together with several of the Greek and Latin fathers ; and the 
physician succeeded in identifying so many passages with those 
taken down at the voung woman's bedside, that no doubt could re- 
main in any rational mind, concerning the true origin of the im- 
pression made on her nervous system."* 

The examples that are the result of madness, which I shall 
adduce in evidence, are of less interest and importance, as they 
arise more from a derangement of the faculties than any remarka- 
ble exaltation of their powers. I quote from the late Dr. Rush, of 
Philadelphia, Pa. : u The records of the wit and cunning of mad- 
men are numerous in every country. Talents for eloquence, 
poetry, music and painting, s$id uncommon ingenuity in several of 
the mechanical arts, are often evolved in this state of madness. A 
gentleman, whom I attended in a hospital in the year 1810, often 
delighted as well as astonished the patients and officers of our hos- 
pital yard every Sunday. A female patient of mine who became 
insane after parturition, in the year 1807, sang hymns and songs 
of her own composition during the latter stages of her illness, with a 
tone of voice so soft and pleasant that I hung upon it with delight 
every time I visited her. She had never discovered a talent for 
poetry or music, in any previous part of her life. Two instances 
of a talent for drawing, evolved by madness, have occurred within 
my knowledge. And where is the hospital for mad people, in 
which elegant and completely rigged ships, and curious pieces of 
machinery, have not been exhibited by persons w T ho never discov- 
ered the least turn for a mechanical art, previously to their 
Biographia Literaria, vol. 1, p. 117, (edited in 1847.) 



554 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

derangement ? Sometimes we observe in mad people an unex- 
pected resuscitation of knowledge, hence we hear them describe 
past events, and speak in ancient or modern languages, or repeat 
long and interesting passages from books, none of which, we are 
sure, they were capable of recollecting in the natural and healthy 
state of their mind."* 

Somnambulism more frequently results from an exhaustion of 
the nervo-vital forces of the system, and like delirium, is apt to 
occur in the most marked manner in persons in whom the quantity 
of blood is deficient. The abuse of the passions is a frequent 
predisposing cause to this malady. In no other way can the sys- 
tem be so effectually robbed of its finest and most potent forces. 
This kind of sleep seldom if ever happens but when the nervous 
system most strenuously demands repose, being greatly exhausted 
by some bodily irritation or mental disquietude. Now, it has been 
remarked that the difficulty of arousing a patient from a somnam- 
bulic paroxysm is in proportion to the energy with which the will is 
at work independent of the normal consciousness. 

" A young man," says Bishop Bordeaux, in the French Ency- 
clopaedia, " was in the habit of getting up during the night in a 
state of somnambulism, of going to his room, taking pen, ink and 
paper, and composing and writing sermons. When he had finish- 
ed one page of the paper on which he was writing, he would read 
over aloud what he had written and correct it. Upon one occa- 
sion, he had made use of the expression, ' Ce divin enfant.' In 
reading over the passage, he changejj the word 'divin' into 'ador- 
able.' Observing, however, that the pronoun 'ce' could not stand 
before the word 'adorable,' he added to it the letter t. In order 
to ascertain whether the somnambulist made use of his eyes, the 
Archbishop held a piece of pasteboard under his chin, to prevent 
him from seeing the paper upon which he was writing, but he 
continued to write on, without being apparently incommoded in 
the slightest degree. The paper upon which he was writing was 
taken away, and other paper laid before him, but he immediately 
perceived the change. He wrote pieces of music while in this 
state, and in the same manner, with his eyes closed ; the words he 
placed underneath the music. It happened upon one occasion that 
the words were written by him in too large a character, and did 
not stand exactly under the corresponding notes ; he soon perceiv- 

* Beasly on the Mind, p. 474. 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 555 

ed the error, blotted out the part, and wrote it over again with 
groat exactness. " 

As it is well known that neither the meditations nor any of the 
transactions of a somnambulic paroxysm are ever transferred to 
the external memory, I can conceive of no stronger proof of the 
fallacy of Mr. Locke's hypothesis, that it is improbable "that the 
soul in a sleeping man should be this moment busy a-thinking, and 
the next moment in a waking man not to remember nor be able to 
recollect one jot of all those thoughts." 

Gassendi tells us of a man who used to rise and dress himself in 
his sleep, in order to go to a cellar to draw wine from a cask. He 
appeared to see as well in the dark as in a clear day ; but when 
he awoke, either in the street or cellar, he was obliged to grope 
and feel his way back to his bed. He always answered as if awake, 
but in the morning recollected nothing of what had happened. 
Another sleep-walker, a countryman of Gassendi's, passed on 
streets, over frozen torrents in the night, but, on waking, was 
afraid to return before daylight, or before the water had subsided."* 
This species of somnambulism has been known to be hereditary. 

The relation between dreaming and somnambulism is remark- 
ably exhibited by the manner in which the current of dreams may 
be directed in certain individuals, by impressing their senses during 
sleep. An officer engaged in the expedition to Louisburg, in 1758, 
was so peculiarly susceptible of such impressions, that he afforded 
his companions much amusement by the facility with which they 
could cause him to dream. Once they conducted him through a 
quarrel, which ended in a duel ; the pistol was placed in his hand, 
he fired, and was awakened by the report. They found him 
asleep on a locker, when they made him believe he had fallen 
overboard. They told him a shark was pursuing him, and en- 
treated him to dive for his life, and he threw himself with great 
force on the cabin floor. After the landing of the army at Louis- 
burg, his friends found him asleep one day in his tent, and evi- 
dently much annoyed by the cannonading. They then made him 
believe he was engaged, when he expressed great fear, and a dis- 
position to run away. They remonstrated, but increased his fears 
by imitating groans, and when he asked who w 7 as hit, they named 
his particular friends. At last they told him the man next to him 
had fallen, when he sprang out of bed, rushed out of the tent, and 

* The World and its Inhabitants, p. 234-5 . 



556 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

ended his dream by falling over the tent ropes. He had no recol- 
lection of his dreams."* 

But the case I am now to relate, is, in several particulars, the 
most remarkable I have ever seen upon record. Its most striking 
feature is the apparent naturalness of both states, so that in the 
abnormal state there is scarcely any more mental exaltation than 
in the normal. For many years there was. a complete alternation 
between the two states, both apparently of an external character ; 
but every event of life which occurred in either state was wholly 
forgotten in the other. These transitions took place during sleep, 
but in passing from the normal to the abnormal state, the sleep be- 
came so deep and protracted that it approximated to the state of death 
from which the patient would become resurrected to a new condi- 
tion of life, but not such as was able to retain any consciousness of 
its previous existence. The case here alluded to is that of Mary 
Reynolds, of Meadville, Pa. It appears that, at the age of eighteen 
or twenty, she became occasionally afflicted with fits ; and in the 
Spring of 1811 had one of unusual, severity, which threw her into 
the most violent contortions and left her very feeble for some three 
months. For five weeks during this period her sight and hearing 
were totally suspended. Just previous to the expiration of twelve 
weeks, on awaking one morning, she found that all recollection of 
previous events was completely suspended, and she was unable to 
recognize any of her former acquaintances. Father, mother, 
brothers and sisters and neighbors were all strangers to her. She 
had forgotten the use of written language and did not know a letter 
of the alphabet, nor how to discharge the simplest duties of her 
domestic employments more than an infant. An imperfect knowl- 
edge of speech and her understanding seemed to be all that was 
left to her. What she had previous- y known she commenced to 
learn anew. In this condition she continued for five weeks, when 
she suddenly returned to her normal state, and regained full pos- 
session of all her previous faculties. 

But all the circumstances connected with her abnormal state 
w T ere now as completely oblivious to her memory as had been 
those of her normal while in the abnormal, — the five preceding 
weeks were a total blank. Kindred and friends were at once re- 
cognized, and all her previous knowledge was completely restored. 
Thus she continued for three weeks, when she again reverted to 
her abnormal state, oblivious, as before, to all that had ever trans- 

* The Power of the Soul over the Body, p. 92. 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 557. 

pired during her normal condition. But every circumstance that 
occurred during her previous abnormal state was vividlv remem- 
bered. For some twenty-two years, but without any periodical 
regularity, she continued to alternate between these two states. 
Sometimes she would continue for several months together, and 
sometimes only a few weeks, and at still others, only a few hours, 
in her second state ; but in the lapse of five years, in no instance 
did she continue more than twenty days in her normal, or, as she 
terms it, first state. Altogether, during the twenty years, she was 
more than three-fourths of her time in the second state. 

Whatever knowledge she acquired in either state was always 
familiar to her in that state, but she was wholly unable to transfer 
any recollection of it to the other. There being no intellectual 
communication between the two conditions, she was obliged to 
learn in each whatever was essential to know. The ordinary 
branches of education, and the domestic duties were taught her in 
both. As an example of her extreme ignorance, at first, in her 
second state, she says : " They undertook to teach me to write ; a pen 
was handed me to imitate a copy of my name ; I took it, but in a 
very awkward manner, and began from the right to the left in the 
Hebrew mode. I soon obtained a tolerable skill in penmanship, 
and frequently amused myself in writing poetry." She learnt 
much more readily in her abnormal than in her normal state. 
But her hand-writing differed as much in the two states as that 
between two individuals. 

The transition from one state to the other always took place 
during sleep. In passing from the normal to the abnormal, nothing 
was particularly noticeable in her sleep. But in passing from the 
abnormal to the normal, her sleep would continue from eighteen to 
twenty hours, and so profound that she could not be awakened. 
For several days previous to these transitions she would have what 
she called u presentiments " of their approach, and which gave 
her most painful apprehensions that she would never revert so as 
ever to know again in this life those whom she loved. She assures 
us that in this respect her feelings were akin to those of one who 
is about to be separated by death, though the transition from the 
abnormal to the normal was not so distressing as the reverse. 
Though she was naturally of a cheerful and lively disposition, she 
was more so in her second state than in her first ; and in the 
earlier transitions while in the second state, she seemed to be per- 
fectly free from all trouble. Nothing could make the least unfa- 



558 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

vorable impression upon her. Her feelings were unmoved by 
the manifestations of either joy or sorrow. She had no ideas of 
the past or the future. Nothing demanded her attention but the 
present, and her own enjoyment. All useful employment was dis- 
carded and she never seemed to tire in her almost ceaseless ram- 
blings through the fields. She had no fears of danger or any 
apprehension that she might ever be in want. One day she spied 
a rattlesnake ; charmed by its beauty she tried to lay hold of it, 
but it eluded her grasp and ran beneath a pile of logs. Uncon- 
scious of danger she thrust her arm in after it, but was unable to 
reach it, and she unwillingly went home without it. 

Miss Reynolds was about 40 years of age when these, transitions 
ceased. From this period until her death, which was at the age 
of 69, she continued in what she called her second state, so that 
her life previous to 18, and about one quarter of it between 18 and 
40 was a complete blank. Her two states were never in any way 
blended ; but her entire disregard of danger gradually disappeared, 
until there was, in this respect, nothing remarkable. She gradually 
ceased to manifest any of those symptoms bordering on insanity 
which she exhibited during the first periods of her abnormal condi- 
tion. After she had become educated in her second state, no 
person would have discovered anything unusual in her manner or 
conversation. For several years she was a successful teacher of 
common schools ; a consistent Christian and performed the duties 
of life in a manner which exhibited nothing in contradistinction to a 
perfectly rational state. 

This is undoubtedly the most striking case of a complete double 
consciousness upon record ; and one of its most singular features 
is, the distinctness, and at the same time, the apparent naturalness 
of both states. What she learned in one state availed her nothing 
in the other, so that she was obliged to be educated in both, as 
much as though she had been two distinct individuals. And even 
the mental faculties, though operating through the same organic 
structure, produced such adverse effects upon the muscular system, 
that her chirography in the two states wholly differed one from 
the other. In short, in this case there was no connection between 
the two states. Consciousness was so completely cut in two that 
memory did not connect the train of consciousness in either state, 
with the train of consciousness in the other. In this it differed 
from somnambulism. For, in the latter case, though the patient 
remembers in his normal state nothing of what occurred while in 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 559 

his state of somnambulism, lie remembers not only all that had 
occurred during every former alternative of that state, but he 
recalls also the events of his normal existence ; so that, whereas 
the patient, in his somnambulic crisis, has a memory of his whole 
life, in the waking intervals he has a memory only of half his life. In 
other words, the patient, in his wakeful condition, remembers 
nothng that occurred in his somnambulic state, but in his som- 
nambulic he remembers all that has ever occurred in his wakeful 
condition, and also in each previous somnambulic crisis. 

There is abundant evidence which goes to show that there is in 
the human mind a latent force of knowledge, of which we have no 
external consciousness, from which we can draw whenever the cir- 
cumstances will permit the draft. This knowledge seems to be so 
covered up by the external elements of life, that we cannot make 
use of it at will, and it is only under peculiar physical conditions 
that we can bring it into the external memory. The conviction, 
therefore, forces itself upon us, that every thought that once makes 
its impress upon the mind, becomes so incorporated into the inte- 
rior consciousness that it is never removed ; and that it requires 
only certain physiological and psychological changes to open a pas- 
sage between the interior and exterior consciousness, in order to 
make manifest the kind of philosophy and facts which the soul has 
stowed away in its interior memory, as a medium of eternal con- 
nection with its mundane existence. 

Mr. Flint, a prominent clergyman, informs us that while travel- 
ing in the State of Illinois, and suffering the common lot of visi- 
tants from other climates, in being taken down with a bilious 
fever, at the same time he was unable to recognize his friends, he 
was assured that his memory was more than ordinarily exact and 
retentive, so that he repeated whole passages in the different lan- 
guages which he knew, with entire accuracy. He recited, without 
losing or misplacing a word, a passage of poetry which he could 
not repeat subsequent to his recovery from sickness. 

Lord Monboddo in his Ancient Metaphysics* relates the follow- 
ing curious case : " It was communicated in a letter," says he, 
" from the late Mr. Hans Stanley, a gentleman well known both to 
the learned and political world, who did me the honor to corre- 
spond with me upon the subject of my first volume of metaphysics. 
I will give it in the words of that gentleman. He introduced it, 
by saying, that it is an extraordinary fact in the history of mind, 

* Vol. II, p. 217. 



560 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

which he believes stands single, and for which he does not pretend 
to account ; then he goes on to narrate it : c About six-and-twenty 
years ago, when I was in France, I had an intimacy with a family 
of the late Marechal de Montmorenci de Laval. His son, the 
Comte de Laval, was married to Mademoiselle de Maupeaux, the 
daughter of a Lieutenant-General of that name, and the niece of 
the late Chancellor. This gentleman was killed at the battle of 
Hestenbeck ; his widow survived him some years, but is since 
dead. 

" * The following facts come from her mouth. She has told it 
to me repeatedly. She was a woman of perfect veracity, and very 
good sense. She appealed to her servants and family for the truth. 
Nor did she, indeed, seem to be sensible that the matter was so ex- 
traordinary as it appeared to me. I wrote it down at the time ; 
and I have the memorandum among some of my papers. 

" ' The Comtesse de Laval had been observed, by servants who 
sat up with her on account of some indisposition, to talk in her 
sleep a language that none of them understood ; nor were they 
sure, or, indeed, herself able to guess, upon the sounds being re- 
peated to her, whether it was or was not gibberish. 

" ' Upon her lying in of one of her children, she was attended 
by a nurse, who was of the province of Britanny, and who imme- 
diately knew the meaning of what she said, it being in the idiom 
of the natives of that country ; but she herself, when awake, did 
not understand a single syllable of what she had uttered in her 
sleep, upon its being retold to her. 

" ' She was born in that province, and had been nursed in a fam- 
ily where nothing but that language was spoken ; so that, in her 
first infancy, she had known it, and no other ; but when she re- 
turned to her parents, she had no opportunity of keeping up the 
use of it ; and as I have before said, she did not understand a word 
of Breton when awake, though she spoke it in her sleep.' " 

In Prof. Hamilton's lectures on Metaphysics, we are furnished 
with an account of a postman between Halle, and a town some 
eight miles distant, whose way lay across a district of uninclosed 
champaign meadow-land, and that in walking over this smooth 
surface the postman was generally asleep. But at the termination 
of this part of his road, there was a narrow foot-bridge over a 
stream, and to reach this bridge it was necessary to ascend some 
broken steps. " Now, it was ascertained as completely as any fact 
of the kind could be, 1st, that the footman was asleep in passing 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 561 

over this level course ; 2d, that he held on in this state without 
deflection toward the bridge ; and 3d, that before arriving at the 
bridge he awoke. But this case is not only deserving of all credit 
from the positive testimony by which it is vouched ; it is also cred- 
ible as only one of a class of analogous cases which it may be 
adduced as representing. This case, besides showing that the mind 
must be active though the body is asleep, shows also that certain 
bodily functions may be dormant, while others are alert. The loco- 
motion faculty was here in exercise, while the senses were in slum- 
ber." It is also a well-authenticated fact, that in the disastrous 
retreat of Sir John Moore, many of the soldiers fell asleep, yet 
continued to march along with their comrades. 

From these facts, among many others which might be related, it 
is abundantly evident that the spirit is not only awake during the 
sleep of the body, but also that it is constantly on the look-out, 
and that it has a certain supervision over the body, so that it 
arouses it into consciousness whenever it becomes necessary for so 
doing. Hence it is, that whenever we fix a determination in the 
mind to awake at any certain time, we find no difficulty in awak- 
ing at the hour designated. But if we trust to another to aw T ake 
us, the mind relaxes its vigilance and fails to arouse the body into 
active consciousness, — it does not take the trouble of measuring 
time, or of listening to any accustomed sound. 

It is from this principle more than from the noise, abstractly, 
that the alarm-watch awakens us at the hour mentally designated 
before retiring. There is in the mind an association with the noise 
and the object to be attained by it. Though the noise of the watch 
holds no comparison to the bustle that is going on in the street, it 
usually awakens us, whereas, the other passes unheeded. And, 
moreover, the more frequent the watch is used to effect this object, 
the quicker and the more certain will we be aroused by it ; but 
just the reverse is the case with all noises to which we are called 
to give no heed. Again, any one who is unaccustomed to have 
another enter his room subsequent to retiring to bed, will, usually, 
be instantly awakened by the approach of any one, however silent 
the approach may be. The mind takes cognizance of the presence 
of another, and arouses the body to demand an explanation of the 
intrusion. A fixed and earnest gaze into the face of an associate, 
will usually awake him from a sound sleep. In none of these 
instances, especially the two last, can the bodily senses be said to 
be the cause of the disturbance. Consonant with this is the phe- 



562 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

n omen on so frequently observed of intuitively speaking of an absent 
person who is about to approach us. So generally has this been 
noticed, that it has grown into a maxim, that " the Devil is always 
near when you are talking about him." There is a psychological 
meeting before the parties become visible to each other. 

From these phenomena, selected from a multitude belonging to 
the same class, we may draw the conclusion, that the latent riches, 
latent possessions of the mind, are not to be measured by its pres- 
ent momentary activity, or its present powers of recollection ; but 
by the amount of its acquired habits and knowledge. The infi- 
nitely greater part of our spiritual treasures lie buried beneath the 
sphere of external consciousness, hid in the obscure recesses of the 
mind. Each individual, in his memory and experience, is adding 
material to material, in an order and for an end at present unknown 
to himself, but yet manifestly according to the plan of Him who 
foresees the end from the beginning. 

Every phenomenon connected with the human constitution goes 
to show that man is a two-fold being, possessing an Outward and 
an Inward consciousness. The simplest and most common form 
of this is that of ordinary sleep and the usual wakefulness. 
Between these two conditions he continually alternates, and 
derives his rest, not from a state of unconsciousness, but by chang- 
ing his conscious action from one plane to the other. Every physi- 
cal exertion demonstrates that change is rest. Hence, experience 
has taught us that walking is not so tiresome as standing. We can 
swing a heavy weight much easier than we can hold it in one posi- 
tion. Any manual labor that requires the constant exercise of any 
one class of muscles is too fatiguing to be long endured. On the 
other hand, a continued and uninterrupted thought upon any one 
subject, is sure, sooner or later, to induce madness. The alterna- 
tion of these forces, therefore, between the correlative planes of 
the outer and inner life, is to the human constitution what day and 
night, summer and winter, are to the planetary system. 

There is a septum, so to speak, between the outer and inner life, 
even upon the natural plane, wdiich keeps the two separate and 
distinct from each other. The Jewish Temple was chiefly designed 
to represent this important truth. In the most external or Gentile 
court all men were allowed to promiscuously mingle, and in the 
Jewish court all in whom regeneration had actually commenced ; 
but no one could enter the temple proper except the priests who 
were the representatives of the Lord as to the works of salvation, 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIEE. 563 

though their lives may not at all times have corresponded with the 
principles of their holy office. It was while in the Holy place they 
received those spiritual elements or properties with which they 
were to bless the people; but it was in the Holy of Holies alone that 
they could commune directly with the Lord. Now, there were 
three veils corresponding to the Natural, the Spiritual, and 
the Celestial, in man. The veil or the tegument of the court gate 
of the temple* represented the septum between the outer and 
inner life of the Natural plane ; the second veil or tegument of the 
door of the tentf represented the septum between the outer and 
the inner life of the Spiritual plane ; and the veil of the taberna- 
cle which was first before the arkt represented the septum be- 
tween the outer and inner life of the Celestial principle. It was 
this last, the veil proper, that was rent from top to bottom the 
instant that the Divine Humanity was made one with the Supreme 
Divinity. The last evil which the Humanity of the Lord had 
inherited from the mother was destroyed when He laid down His 
life for His enemies. Here his own Humanity was perfected, 
glorified and made one with his Divinity or Father, and the condi- 
tions of salvation were completed ; for He had now journeyed 
from the external of the Natural principle to the interior of the 
Celestial, and subdued every evil that infested his pathway. 
Death and hell were now His subjects, and will become such to all 
who follow Him in the regeneration. How plain and rational is 
the plan of redemption, so far as we understand the human consti- 
tution and its relation to God ! 

Now to rupture either one of these septums before the individ- 
ual is in a morally fit condition to have the interior principle of 
either of these correlative planes cooperate with the outer inclina- 
tions, is to. desecrate the inner principle through which the divine 
force descends into the ultimate plane of life. In the ratio in 
which this is effected, moral contest ceases, and the individual fails 
to make any proper distinction between vice and virtue ; for the cur- 
rent of positive forces which were orderly designed to flow from the 
natural to the spiritual are reversed, thus rendering the interior nega- 
tive or subordinate to the exterior ; and as no moral force is ever 
connected with the exterior life only so far as it is derived from the 
interior, the individual can have no higher perceptions of right 
than the impulses of his inclinations. Moreover, it is only through 

* Ex. 27 : 16, 17 ; 38 : 18, 19. t Ex. 26 : 36, 37 ; 36 : 37, 38. J Ex. 26 : 3 ; 36 : 
35, 36. 



564 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the positive elements of our nature — the higher principles of our 
constitution — that we see God. But no sooner does man en- 
throne the external life into a positive relation to the internal, than 
he looks through his inclinations to Nature, instead of through his 
spiritual faculties, to the Creator; and immediately sets himself to 
work to eradicate from the mind any educational impressions in 
reference to the sanctity of the Christian Scriptures, the Divinity 
of the Lord, and the personality of God. Here is the origin of 
Pantheism. His governing principle is now inclination, rather 
than inspiration ; for as Nature is exalted into the position of God, 
the Will instead of the Understanding becomes the receptacle of 
directing force, — he turns himself away from God to Nature and 
sees light as darkness, and darkness as light, good as evil, and evil 
as good ; for the gratification of his sensual appetites is now his 
chief desire. 

Premonitory Dreams. 

Having set forth the principles of Dreaming, and substantiated 
the fact of double consciousness, we will now proceed to briefly 
consider another branch of the same subject, or, w T hat may very 
properly be denominated Premonitory dreams. What I wish to 
be understood by Premonitory dreams, is that class of premonitions 
that take place during sleep, and which reveals to us circumstances 
that are actually transpiring at the time of the dream, and of which 
we have no external means of knowing; admonitions which tend 
to shield us from danger, and the revelation of coming events. 
Here we have a phenomenon which probably illustrate more fully 
than any other, both the prophetic powers of the mind and its 
sympathetic action, with conditions foreign to itself. 

The questions which now arise are : How can we be made con- 
scious of coming events, of the certainty of which we have no data 
from which to reason ? or, second, become cognizant of those that 
are transpiring beyond the means of natural observation ? 

To the first of these inquiries, I will say that prophecy demon- 
strates the existence of a mental faculty, which, under certain 
favorable conditions, can intuitively perceive coming events. If it 
be said that this is an inspiration from God and not an innate prin- 
ciple in man, I reply that God creates no new faculties in man, 
but only inspires those which already exist. Or, if it still be urged 
that God, or some angel instructed by Him, seizes hold of the fac- 
ulties of man and gives utterance through his vocal organs to 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 565 

prophesies of which the man himself could know nothing, it is suf- 
ficient to reply, that the evidence is wholly wanting, and that 
adverse to this, there is no instance of any power, either good or 
bad, ever making use of man only through the medium of his 
inherent cmistitution. And any, or every one, of our faculties 
may be either inspired by the Lord, or obsessed by the Devil, in 
exact ratio as we sustain a negative relation to either the one or 
the other ; so that we become the servants to whomsoever we yield 
ourselves servants to obey. Moreover, the principle of prophecy 
is perceived, in its rudimental form, even in the lower animals. 
The swallow, in migrating from one climate to another, can have 
no conception of the cause or the end to be attained by its flight, 
but is moved by an inspiration of which its instincts are the 
medium, — it is an instinctive prophecy, (for it is without any pro- 
cess of reasoning,) of the approaching season. To me, it is evident 
that the Law of Prophecy is one of the fundamental principles of 
the human constitution ; and that the obtuseness of the instincts in 
man, in comparison to those of the lower animals, is chiefly, if not 
wholly, owing to his moral condition, — sin having so divorced 
his Outer and Inner life from each other, that he is unable, 
only as he becomes regenerated, to transmit his interior percep- 
tions into the external plane of consciousness. I have no doubt 
that were we completely freed from the effects of sin, we should 
become so transparent to the influence of the sphere of Him who 
sees the end from the beginning, that we could as easily predict 
the future, as rehearse the past. And it may be in this sense, that 
God, in whose image man was created, knows neither time nor 
space. 

The second inquiry finds its explanation in the principle of 
Clairvoyance. It is well known that the clairvoyant subject is 
capable of entering buildings which he has never seen, and of 
describing scenes which he has never witnessed, with equal accu- 
racy, as if he were there with his bodily senses. I know it has 
frequently been alleged that this is effected through the sympathy 
between the subject and the magnetizer, — that the subject does 
not really describe scenes at a distance, but only reads the mind of 
the person who has induced the clairvoyant state ; so that any 
error which may be in the mind of the operator, will be described 
by the subject. In many instances such has been the case ; but it 
has equally been demonstrated, that there is an independent Som- 
nambulism which enables the subject to describe, with equal accu- 



566 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

racy, scenes and events of which the mesmerizer has no knowledge. 

The clairvoyant state is usually first induced by the concen- 
trated action of the forces of a positive mind upon a negative one. 
The mesmerizer puts himself in physical contact with his subject, 
and at the same time determinately wills him to becomerexternally 
unconscious to everything around him, and subject to his control, — 
the patient all the while yielding a passive submission to his desires. 
By this means the patient's active consciousness is driven back 
upon the interior plane of life, in the same manner as in natural 
sleep, — still, mentally maintaining his relation with the operator, 
but externally oblivious to everything else around him. Fre- 
quently, so deep is the somnipathic condition, that th*e voice of a 
third person, however loud, has no apparent effect in awakening 
him. True, after this condition has often been induced, physical 
contact becomes no longer necessary ; and in some instances where 
a complete mental relation had previously been established by 
having frequently been magnetized, artificial somnambulism has 
been induced, however widely the subject and the operator were 
separated. 

While in the Mesmeric state, severe surgical operations may be 
performed without any conscious suffering on the part of the pa- 
tient ; and on several occasions, I have found that the state of tor- 
por extended from the Cerebrum and Sensory Ganglia, to the 
Medulla Oblongata ; so that the respiratory movements became 
seriously interfered with, and a state of partial asphyxia superven- 
ed. On other occasions, I have known the Arterial system to be 
so completely under the control of the Mesmerizer, that he could, 
at one moment so nearly suspend the action of the heart, that no 
pulse could be detected at the wrist ; but within 30 seconds he 
would again induce 120 full and resisting beats per minute, or 
almost any desired condition between these two extremes. I also 
once knew a man of feeble constitution, who, by a single effort of 
his own will, could at any moment induce the most intense rigidity 
of the whole muscular system. While in one of these self-induced 
paroxysms I laid his head in one chair and his heels upon the edge 
of another, and for half an hour he thus continued stretched be- 
tween the tw T o, without any support to the intervening space of his 
body. 

u A frequent phenomenon of this condition, and one which has 
its parallel in natural Somnambulism, is a remarkable exaltation of 
one or more of the senses, so that the individual becomes suscep- 






MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 567 

tible of influences, which, in his natural condition would not be in 
the least perceived. The exaltation of the muscular senses, by 
which various actions that ordinarily require the guidance of vision 
are directed independently of it, is a common phenomenon of the 
Mesmeric or artificial, as ot the natural Somnambulism."* 

Notwithstanding the mind manifests an unusual activity while in 
the Mesmeric state, the patient usually forgets every thing that has 
transpired as soon as he returns to his normal condition. The 
same phenomenon of double consciousness is here manifested as in 
sleep or ordinary Somnambulism. 

The conclusions to be drawn from these phenomena, are : — 1st, 
That the mind is capable of acting independently of the body ; and, 
2d, That under various conditions, it frequently does act in a vigor- 
ous manner while so nearly disconnected from the bodily functions, 
that the external consciousness can take no cognizance of the fact. 

Keeping in view these psychological phenomena, it will be easy 
to understand the philosophy of Premonitory Dreams and other 
premonitions. The interior plane of consciousness is able to pre- 
dict coming events, of which, under ordinary circumstances, the 
external consciousness can take no cognizance. But during a state 
of partial slumber, while the mind is active upon an intermediate 
plane between a condition of wakefulness and profound sleep, it is 
able on the one side, to perceive the conditions of the interior life 
and to trace them to their ultimate results ; and on the other, to 
impress its perceptions upon the memory of the external conscious- 
ness. 

" That dreams, like any other occurrence in nature," says Dr. 
Good, " may occasionally become the medium of some providen- 
tial suggestion, or supernatural communication, I am by no means 
disposed to deny. That they have been so employed in former 
times is unquestionable ; and that they have been so employed, 
occasionally, among all nations in former times, is highly probable ; 
and the peculiar liveliness with which the trains of our dreaming 
ideas are usually excited, seems to point out such a mode of com- 
munication as peculiarly eligible." 

In confirmation of this view of the subject, the Penny Cyclo- 
paedia furnishes the following account, which the editors deem 
authentic: "In the night of the 11th of May, 1812, Mr. Wil- 
liams, of Scorrior House, Cornwall, awoke his wife, and, exceed- 
ingly agitated, told her that he had dreamed that He was in the 

* Carpenter's Human Physiology, p. 734. 



568 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

lobby of the House of Commons, and saw a man shot with a 
pistol, by a gentleman who had just entered the lobby, who was 
said to be the Chancellor; to which Mrs. W. replied that it 
was only a dream, and recommended him to go to sleep as soon 
as he could. He did so, but shortly after again awoke her, 
and said that he had a second time had the same dream. The 
same vision was repeated a third time ; on which, notwith- 
standing his wife's entreaties, that he would lie quiet and endeavor 
to forget it, he arose, it being then between one and two o'clock, 
and dressed himself. At breakfast, the dreams were the sole sub- 
ject of conversation, and in the forenoon, Mr. W. went to Fal- 
mouth, where he related the particulars o£them to all his acquaint- 
ances that he met. On the following day, Mr. Tucker, of 
Trematon Castle, accompanied by his wife, a daughter of Mr. W., 
went to Scorrior House on a visit. Mr. W. related to Mr. T. the 
circumstances of his dream ; on which Mr. T. observed, that it 
would do very well for a dream to have the Chancellor in the 
lobby of the House of Commons, but that he would not be found 
there in reality. Mr. T. then asked what sort of a man he 
appeared to be, when Mr. W. described him minutely. Mr. T. 
replied, 'your description is not at all that of the Chancellor, but 
is very exactly that of Mr. Percival, the Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer. He then inquired whether Mr. W. had ever seen Mr. 
Percival, and was told that he had never seen him, and that he 
had never been in the House of Commons in his life. At this 
moment they heard a horse gallop to the door of the house, and 
immediately after a son of Mr. Williams' entered the room, and 
said that he had hurried from Truro, having seen a gentleman 
there who had come from town by that evening's mail, and who 
had been in the lobby of the House of Commons on the evening 
of the 11th, when a man called Bellingham had shot Percival. 
Mr. W.'s description of the parties, their dress, position and the 
interior arrangement of the lobby, though particular to the minu- 
tiae was strictly correct." 

Dr. Abercrombie relates the following : " A Scotch clergyman, 
who lived near Edinburgh, dreamed one night, while on a visit to 
that town, that he saw a fire, and one of his children in the midst 
of it. On awaking, he instantly got up and returned home with 
the greatest speed. He found his house on fire, and was just in 
time to assist in saving one of his children, who, in the alarm, had 
been left in a place of danger." 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 5G9 

Rev. Dr. H. Bushnell says : — " As I sat by the fire, one stormy 
November night, in a hotel parlor, in the Napa Valley of Califor- 
nia, there came in a most venerable and benignant looking person, 
with his wife, taking their seats in the circle. The stranger, as I 
afterwards learned, was Captain Yonnt, a man who came over into 
California, as a trapper, more than forty years ago. Here he has 
lived, apart from the world and its questions, acquiring an immense 
landed estate ; and becoming a kind of acknowledged patriarch in 
the country. His tall, manly person, and his gracious paternal 
look, as totally unsophisticated in the expression, as if he had never 
heard of a philosophic doubt or question in his life, marked him as 
a true patriarch. The conversation turned, I know not how, on 
spiritism and the modern necromancy, and he discovered a degree 
of inclination to believe in the reported mysteries. His wife, a 
much younger and apparent Christian person, intimated that prob- 
ably he was predisposed to this kind of faith, by a very peculiar 
experience of his own, and evidently desired that he might be 
drawn out by some intelligent discussion of his queries. 

At my request he gave me his story. About six or seven years 
previous, in a mid-winter's night, he had a dream in which he saw 
what appeared to be a company of emigrants, arrested by the 
snows of the mountains, and perishing rapidly by cold and hunger. 
He noted the very cast of the scenery, marked by a huge perpen- 
dicular front of white rock cliff; he saw the men cutting off what 
appeared to be tree tops, rising out of deep gulfs of snow ; he dis- 
tinguished the very features or the persons, and the look of their 
particular distress. He woke, profoundly impressed with the dis- 
tinctness and apparent reality of his dream. At length he fell 
asleep, and dreamed exactly the same dream again. In the morn- 
ing he could not expel it from his mind. Falling in, shortly, with 
an old hunter comrade, he told him the story, and was only the 
more deeply impressed, by his recognizing, without hesitation, the 
scenery of the dream. This comrade came over the Sierra, by the 
Carson Valley Pass, and declared that a spot in the pass answered 
exactly to his description. By this, the unsophisticated patriarch 
was decided. He immediately collected a company of men, with 
mules and blankets, and all necessary provisions. The neighbors 
were laughing meantime, at his credulity. ' No matter,' said he, 
4 1 am able to do this, and I will, for I verily believe that the fact 
is according to my dream.' The men were sent into the moun- 
tains, one hundred and fifty miles distant, directly to the Carson 



570 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Valley Pass. And there they found the company, in exactly the 
condition of the dream, and brought in the remnant alive."* 

At nine years of age, the Author had a severe attack of scarlet 
fever. While convalescing, he imprudently exposed himself, took 
a sudden cold which brought on a relapse of the disease, and with 
it most excruciating pains in the loins, the kidneys being seriously 
involved in the difficulty. Various remedies were tried without 
affording any relief. An elder sister who at the time was watch- 
ing with him, fell asleep and dreamt that some one came to her 
and conducted her to a certain corner of an adjoining field, showed 
her an herb which she had no recollection of ever having before 
seen, requested her to gather a handful and steep it in a pint of 
water and give to the patient. On awaking, she distinctly recol- 
lected her dream, but soon fell asleep again when the same vision 
was repeated. In the morning she related her dream to their 
mother, who, from her own experience, had just confidence in 
dreams, and she ordered the sister to immediately go to the unfre- 
quented place designated in her dream, to see if she could find any 
such plant. She went directly to the spot, recognized the plant, 
plucked, steeped and administered it according to direction. The 
remedy was effectual ; the pain under which he had become nearly 
exhausted, soon subsided and a complete recovery speedily followed. 

Gennodius, a physician, a man of eminence, piety and charity, 
had in his youth some doubts of the reality of another life. He 
saw one night in a dream a young man of celestial figure who 
bade him follow him. The apparition led him into a magnificent 
city, in which his ears were charmed by melodious music, which 
far exceeded the most enchanting harmony that he had ever heard. 
To the inquiry from whence proceeded these ravishing sounds, his 
conductor answered that they were the hymns of the blessed in 
heaven, and disappeared. Gennodius awoke, and the impressions 
of the dream were dissipated by the transactions of the day. The 
following night the same young man appeared and asked whether 
he recollected him ? The melodious songs which I heard last night, 
answered Gennodius, are now brought again to my memory. Did 
you hear them, said the apparition, dreaming or awake ? I heard 
them in a dream. True, replied the young man, and our present 
conversation is a dream ; but where is your body while I am 
speaking to you ? In my chamber. But know you not that your 
eyes are shut and that you cannot see ? My eyes indeed are 
* Nature and the Supernatural, p. 475-6. 



MAN'S INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR LIFE. 571 

shut. How then can you see ? Gennodius could make no 
answer. In your dream the eyes of your body are closed and 
useless ; but you have other eyes with which you see me. Thus, 
after death, although the eyes of your flesh are deprived of sense 
and emotion, you will remain alive, and capable of sight and of 
hearing by means of your spiritual part. Cease, then, to entertain 
a doubt of the great truth of another life after death ! By this 
occurrence, Gennodius affirms that he became a sincere believer in 
a future state. 

Most persons have experienced dreams which have left impres- 
sions on their minds which they could not well account for — im- 
pressions which they could not well avoid, and which they could 
not if they would, reason themselves out of, because the impression 
was deeper than their reason. These impressions, in every age 
and nation, have survived the sneers and the ridicule of the mere- 
ly natural man. The interior sanction which they receive over- 
tops all natural skepticism and forces a conviction in opposition to 
the judgment. Strive as we may to quench the convictions that 
visions and dreams are the offsprings of a distorted imagination, 
holding no philosophical relation to a normal mental condition, the 
conviction will constantly force itself upon us, that they are the 
influx of principles upon the interior plane of life, against which 
the judgment cannot successfully operate. Mr. Macnish furnishes 
a remarkable illustration of this truth, in his work on the Philoso- 
phy of Sleep. This writer observes that u dreams have been 
looked upon by some as the occasional means of giving us an in- 
sight into futurity. This opinion is so singularly unphilosophical, 
that I would not have noticed it, were it not advocated even by 
persons of good sense and education. In ancient times it was so 
common as to obtain universal belief, &c." Nevertheless, this 
same individual, evidently unconscious of his own inconsistency 
makes the following statement: "I dreamed that a near relative 
of my own, residing three hundred miles off, had suddenly died : 
and immediately thereafter awoke in a state of inconceivable ter- 
ror, similar to that produced by a paroxysm of nightmare. The 
same day, happening to be writing home, I mentioned the circum- 
stance in a half-jesting, half-earnest way. To tell the truth, I was 
afraid to be serious, lest I should be laughed at for putting any 
faith in dreams. However, in the interval between writing and 
receiving an answer, I remained in a state of most unpleasant sus- 
pense. I felt a presentiment that something dreadful had hap? 



572 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

pened, or would happen ; and although I could not help blaming 
myself for a childish weakness in so feeling, I was unable to get 
rid of the painful idea which had taken such rooted possession of 
my mind. Three days after sending away m}^ letter, what was my 
astonishment when I received one written the day subsequent to 
mine, and stating that the relative of whom I had dreamed, had 
been struck with a fatal shock of palsy the day before, viz.: the 
very day, on the morning of which I had beheld the appearance 
in my dream." 

A better understanding of the occult forces by which the human 
mind is governed, would have prevented this conflict in the mind 
of Mr. Macnish between his interior perceptions, and * his boasted 
but false philosophy. His reason was powerless before his impres- 
sions, though childish they seemed to him, for the latter was more 
interior and correct than the former. The intuitive common 
sense of mankind is too deep-rooted to be destroyed by an unphil- 
osophical skepticism, and an irrational infidelity. When angels 
touch the interior cords of life, their vibrations are heard through- 
out the corridors of the soul and demand a listening ear. Upon 
the same principles, woman's intuitions not unfrequently outstrip 
the slow calculating philosophy of man, and arrive at the conclu- 
sion much quicker, and often times much more correctly. A pure 
minded woman, who is a faithful wife, lives much more upon the 
plane of life which conjoins her to angels than man, so that these 
heavenly guests are enabled to overleap all process of external 
reasoning, by being observant of those causes which are hid from 
the natural perceptions, and are enabled to impress upon her mind 
the finale of any given transaction, or to perceive events about to 
take place, the causes of which are hid from human observation. 
Man during sleep, retires within, so that his outward senses take 
no cognizance of the conditions and events by which he is sur- 
rounded. But almost every one can bear witness that often times 
the mental powers are far more active during sleep than in their 
wakeful moments. Premonition of events from which we have no 
data to reason ; the revelation of truths which are hid beneath the 
clouds of the external judgment ; the exposition of philosophy 
which the reasoning faculties are too feeble to grasp and can 
scarcely comprehend when unfolded ; and a beauty of expression 
which entirely surpasses our capability, while all our external sen- 
ses are most active, are the frequent pleasing results of sleep. 



CHAPTER XII. 

SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 

We now enter upon one of the most complicated themes that 
has ever demanded the attention of man — a theme which ever 
has been and still is, to a large degree, enveloped in seeming inex- 
plicable mystery. It is one which involves the whole principles of 
the connection between Mind and Matter ; the Spiritual and Ma- 
terial ; God and Nature. The Heathen and the Christian, alike, 
have failed to comprehend the marriage between these and their 
relation to and reciprocal dependence upon each other. Within 
this one precinct is involved every mystery of creation. Solve 
the relation of Spirit and Matter, and all things are laid open to the 
view of man ; but so far as it is wrapped in obscurity chaos character- 
izes the human mind. Turn aside the veil which intercepts between 
the two and all becomes plain. Standing as man does, upon the 
boundaries between the heavens and the earth, it is his innate pre- 
rogative to survey the conditions of both whenever God shall gra- 
ciously deliver him from the sepulchre into which he has been cast 
by his own evils. Natural death is not so much an extinction of 
the body as is spiritual death an obliteration of the perceptions. 
Shrouded in darkness and shut out from the higher principles of 
life, man is entombed even while he lives, — a tomb from which 
there is no release only through Him who is the resurrection and 
the life. Raised to a newness of being, and standing upon the lofty 
pinnacle designed for him, his vision may sweep through all the 
mysteries of the universe. Purity of heart is alone the telescope 
through which we can see God ; and in degree as we see Him we 
can comprehend the mysteries of Nature. 

Having previously considered the relation of the Outer and the 
Inner consciousness to each other ; and also Sin and its Effects by 
which the moral consciousness is chiefly modified, we shall be much 

73 



574 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

aided in our comprehension of the subject now under considera- 
tion. So far as universal principles are concerned, it only remains 
to more fully draw the distinction between the Soul and the Body, 
and to set forth their reciprocal action upon each other. 

Every Relation supposes at least two things : in other words, 
Relatives (i°elativa sunt, quorum esse est ad aliud^) are from the 
very nature of relativity, necessarily plural. Indeed, it would be 
an overt contradiction to speak of a relation of one term, — a rela- 
tive not referred, — not related. Moreover, a relation is a unify- 
ing act, and though it is a synthesis it is likewise an antithesis. 
For even when it results in denoting agreement, it necessarily pro- 
ceeds through a thought of difference ; and thus relatives, how- 
ever they may in reality coincide, are always mentally contrasted. 
We cannot, for example, conceive of a parent, without at the same 
time conceiving of a child — of a hill without a valley, — of cold 
without heat, — of light without darkness, or cause without effect. 
Hence things relative and correlative always coexist, both in nature 
and in thought. We cannot conceive, we cannot know, we can- 
not define the one relative, without, pro tanto, conceiving, know- 
ing, defining also the other ; for Relative and Correlative are each 
thought through the other. In this all philosophers agree in 
opinion. 

These Relatives, as applied to the Soul and Body, may be de- 
nominated the Correlative forces of Faculty and Function. Fac- 
idty, (facnltas~) is properly limited to active power ; but is abus- 
ively applied to the mere passive affections of the mind. But the 
word Functio in Latin, from which the word Function is derived, 
simply expresses performance or operation ;- — not the primal force 
itself, but the means which the force uses. A Judge is a function- 
ary of penal regulations ; but inasmuch as his power is delegated 
to him from what previously existed, he is the agent of the Law, 
not the Law itself. The function of nutrition does not mean the 
operation of that animal power ; but its discriminate character. 

Whenever there is a correlation of principles, as in copulative 
association, there is both an active and a 'passive power ; for power 
is a word which we may use in both active and passive significa- 
tion. In this opinion, though there have been exceptions taken to 
it, lam not alone. Mr. Locke says : " Power is twofold — viz: as 
able to make, or able to receive, any change ; the one may be 
called active, and the other passive power ; " and in this sense it 
has been used by all the best metaphysicians from Aristotle to the 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 575 

present time. Dr. Reid, however, takes exceptions to the term 
"passive power ; " — " That it is a powerless power, and a contra- 
diction of terms." But it should be remembered that universal 
creation exists from the correlative of active and passive principles ; 
and that the force of one -is dependent upon that of the other. 
The positiveness of one extremity of a magnetic bar is the result 
of the negativeness of the opposite extremity, and vice versa ; so 
that their intensities are reciprocally dependent upon one another. 
In the congress of sexes also, the female, though she is the passive 
agent, is equal in power to the male in effecting procreation, so 
that he is as much dependent upon her as she is upon him. In 
fact, neither possesses any power in a separate, but only in their 
united capacity ; and this is equally true in every other depart- 
ment of nature. It is what I have elsewhere denominated coop- 
posite forces. 

The Soul and Body are governed by the same general law, — 
one cannot maintain an active existence without the other. They 
sustain the relation of Faculty and Cajiacity, an active and passive 
force ; and their conditions, morally and potentially, are co-equal 
and reciprocally indispensable for the effecting of uses. Without 
the Soul there would be no Faculty, or active principle ; and 
without the Body there would be no Capacity or passive principle ; 
nor can one exist without the other. The Faculty is the positive 
principle of the Capacity ; and the Capacity is the negative prin- 
ciple of the Faculty, so that these are reciprocally dependent 
properties. 

u There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body," — one 
by which w T e are connected with the ultimate plane of existence, 
and the other by which we are connected with the spiritual plane 
of existence. But some man will say, u How are the dead raised 
up ? and with what body do they come ?" I answer, that the 
spiritual body is concreted from the more subtle properties of the ter- 
restrial body, by the positive forces of the soul, and exactly corre- 
sponds to the moral condition of the individual ; and is raised to an 
incorruptible body by virtue of man's indissoluble connection with 
his God. The spiritual and the natural body differ from each other 
in the ratio as the moral constitution differs from the physical ; for 
the soul concretes a spiritual body that is a perfect counterpart to 
itself. Whatever is concreted contains all the fundamental proper- 
ties of the substance from which it is derived ; and as the spiritual 
body contains all the more subtle properties of the natural body, 



576 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the soul has the elements of the natural body from which to react 
forever, nor could it ever maintain an existence of use without it. 

Life on the ultimate plane was designed to continue until the 
soul had prepared for itself a spiritual body from the elements of 
the natural body, purified and redeemed from every hereditary and 
acquired evil, so that it might become a perfect plane of reaction 
for the divine forces flowing from the Creator into the human con- 
stitution. Cohesion is the ultimate expression, either orderly or 
disorderly, of the Divine Love, and becomes the principle of forma- 
tion in every department of universal existence. In obedience to 
this fundamental law, a law which it is impossible for either mind 
or matter to ever transcend, the loves of the individual ultimate in 
the cohesion of such particles as perfectly agree with his desires. 
These properties, in the spiritual body, become the reactive plane 
of the soul until they are displaced by new ones through the 
attractive forces of new loves, which, however, are not effected in 
a moment ; but require the necessary time for the physical changes, 
and which are augmented in the ratio, of the intensity of the desires. 
But as these elements are derived alone from the natural body, if 
the individual loves are evil they concrete a spiritual body from 
the natural one, ill-shapen and imperfect, which exactly corre- 
sponds to the loves that are its counterpart. And as soon as the 
spiritual body is disconnected from the natural body, like a seed 
removed from its parent stock, it is deprived of the ultimate basis 
from which it concreted its spiritual forces, hence becomes forever 
fixed in its condition. It is now from this condition or plane of 
reaction, that the spirit must forever act ; and as action and reac- 
tion are equal, the soul can never rise above the conditions of its 
mundane life. Whether we reason a priori or a posteriori, we arrive 
at precisely the same conclusion ; for as the state of the soul exactly 
corresponds with the conditions of the Body, it makes no essential 
difference whether we commence our argument at the esse, which is 
the ruling love, or the extreme ultimate, the earthly body. 

The snake annually sheds his skin and the animal his hair ; but 
they are renewed with other coverings exactly corresponding to the 
old ; and it is only by the formation of the new that the old is 
removed. So with man ; at death he frees himself from one cov- 
ering to find himself possessed of another so closely resembling the 
one thrown off, but adapted to his new state, that he is unable, at 
first, from personal consciousness, to distinguish between them ; 
and it is difficult for him to realize that he has passed from one 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 577 

state of existence to that of another. But he finds himself no 
longer immediately connected .with the ultimate plane of life from 
which he can concrete those physical properties necessary to change 
the character of the reactive forces of his new condition. By 
being permitted to enter into a temporary relation with those of a 
higher order, he may both perceive and comprehend principles far 
above his own grade ; but having no conditions within himself 
from which they can react, no sooner is the connection broken, 
than he relapses into his former state which is in perfect keeping 
with his mundane life, nor is it possible for him to avoid it. Ter- 
rible as is the suffering of the damned, it would be infinitely worse 
for them to be compelled to associate with angels. 

This question is one which involves the whole principle of 
eternal happiness or misery ; for if the loves, which are the active 
principles of the individual, can never transcend the conditions of 
their reaction, and there is no change after death, a fact which. 
both the Bible and Philosophy clearly demonstrate ; then the ques- 
tion becomes forever settled, that there are future rewards and 
punishments definite and eternal, growing out of certain specific 
relations existing between the present and the future life. I am 
free to confess that my early prejudices were adverse to this decis- 
ion ; but deeper research, however sad may be the conclusion, has 
forced upon me the conviction, that the doctrines of universal sal- 
vation, and of an instantaneous preparation for heaven, are alike 
without foundation in truth. The same principle which overthrows 
one equally overthrows the other ; for it is a physical as well as a 
moral change that underlies the principles of salvation, and this 
change cannot be effected in a moment, even in this life, nor ever 
in the future state of existence. Even the Lord himself required 
thirty-three years in order to put away the last remaining inherit- 
ed evil connected with His physical constitution that He might 
make it one with His Supreme Divinity. And the Jews, who 
were types of the regenerating life, were forty years in their Pil- 
grimage from Egypt to Canaan, though under the immediate 
supervision of the Almighty, and daily witnessing His astonishing 
miracles in their deliverance. Can it, then, be reasonably expect- 
ed, though our first sins may be forgiven, that we can instanta- 
neously change all of our innate love of self to a love of the neigh- 
bor, and our love of the world to a love of the Lord, and with 
them the corresponding physical conditions, and thus become pre- 
pared for angelic associations ? This is the great Armageddon con- 



578 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

test of a whole life, and happy is he who is final victor over 
himself. 

It is a prevalent opinion among those who are unwilling to walk 
in self-renunciation's straight and narrow way, that " God is too 
good and too merciful to damn any one forever." In this opinion I 
most fully concur ; but, at the same time, I am equally certain 
that man is neither so good nor so wise as not to destroy himself. 
The cause of damnation does not consist in any malignity on the 
part of the Divine Being, but in the individual hostility to His holy 
regulations. The sinner voluntarily places himself in antago- 
nistic relations to infinitely positive forces, and it is this relation, 
rather than any divine anger, that causes his destruction. Were 
the Earth to set up an action independent of the influence of 
the Sun, it would be deprived of light, heat, and all regulated 
movements ; and a universal chaos and destruction, so far as the 
Earth is concerned, would inevitably ensue. No order could 
thenceforth be restored only by the Earth again yielding to the 
Sun's attraction and placing itself in harmony with the Sun's 
sphere. The Earth's destruction would not be in virtue of the 
Sun's malignity ; but as a legitimate sequence of its own infidelity. 
Were the Creator to attempt to effect harmony with evil He would 
destroy the whole universe, of both mind and matter, by destroy- 
ing Himself, the only source from which these are obtained. The 
vengeance of God is not revenge, but the inevitable result growing 
out of violated laws. As often as I stumble into the fire, it pro- 
duces vesication, not out of revenge, but as a consequence of the 
relation of that element to my constitution. The fire venges itself 
upon me for the violation of a natural law ; but it does not revenge 
itself, for the injury done was to myself rather than to that ele- 
ment. So, in a moral point of view, we cannot injure God ; hence 
He has nothing to revenge, even were He malignant ; but he does 
avenge every infringement of his precept, not out of retaliation, for 
that would be revenge, but as an inevitable result of His own exis- 
tence and our relation to it. 

The Relation betiueen the Natural and Spiritual 

Worlds, 

Having thus briefly considered the relation of the Soul and 
Body, we will now proceed to offer a few considerations in refer- 
ence to the relation between the Spiritual and the Natural worlds. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 579 

Spiritual influences are intimately and* inseparably blended with 
all human thoughts and actions, and have strewn their effects all 
along the path-way of the world's history, from the primal Eden 
down to the present moment, and will continue so'to do throuorh 
all coming ages. There is no thought without spiritual action ; no 
action without spiritual thought — like soul and body, they are in- 
separably connected and sustain the relation of action and re-action 
to each other. Between the inhabitants of the Natural and the 
Spiritual worlds, though each may be invisible to the other, there 
is an inseparable reciprocal relation, no less than that between the 
Earth and its own atmosphere. Without the Earth, there would, 
be no atmosphere ; without mortal man, there would be no immor- 
tal angels ; without the atmosphere, the Earth would be an inert 
and a non-productive mass ; without the Spiritual world, man 
would have no immediate source from which he could derive life 
and animation. Each is indispensable to the existence of the 
other. Could man become completely insulated from the influences 
of the Spiritual world, from that moment he would be incapable of 
thought or action. Were spirits shut out from every connection 
with the earth, either mediately or immediately, they would be- 
come as a blossom or a branch separated from their roots, and perish 
for want of the material forces, while the Earth, w T ith all it con- 
tains, would be deprived of its spiritual atmosphere, and like a 
living creature placed within a vacuum, would speedily perish. 

If it be said that God can exist without Nature, the only neces- 
sary reply is, that this is entirely beyond the comprehension of 
man, and the proof is wholly wanting. •This much w r e do know, 
that Matter, even in its crudest form, is indispensable as an ulti- 
mate plane of Divine use and without which, there could be no 
successive orders of re-creations. It is true that man and woman, 
the highest earthly representatives of God and Nature, can exist 
as distinct and separate entities ; but not upon a plane of the 
highest uses, independent of each other. Here they become re- 
ciprocally dependent ; she dependent upon him for the re-creative 
principle ; he dependent upon her for the conditions of its fruition. 
Moreover, the incentive of the male is derived from the female, 
while the passivity of the female is induced by the action of the 
male. We also know that the Earth can produce nothing without 
air, and that there is a strong probability that the Atmosphere 
could impart no life or vitality without the electric forces of the 
earth. The same law holds good of the influence between the 



580 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Earth and the Sun. The Sun imparts to the Earth such electric 
forces as effect light, heat, and re-production ; while the Earth in 
return, cooperating with the rest of the planets of our solar sys- 
tem, imparts to the Sun the conditions by which these forces are 
brought into active requisition. The worst and most inconceiva- 
ble chaos would speedily be the result of a cessation of this recip- 
rocal action, — a chaos without light, without warmth, and without 
any specific purpose. The evidence therefore is, that though the 
Creator may be abundantly able to sustain a distinct and separate 
existence as an individual entity, Nature is an indispensable ac- 
companiment to his existence in Use. And to say how far any 
thing, even God himself, could exist without any reference to use, 
is a problem which no human mind can fathom, hence must for- 
ever remain unsolved. The only certainty in the matter is, that 
universal existence tends to use, and that whenever any specific object 
or being has accomplished its use, it changes its form and mode of 
action. But this law can pertain only to mutable beings ; and even 
here the change may be but a conservation of the same force operat- 
ing through a new form or mode of use. 

Paradoxically, therefore, as it may appear, Spirit and Matter, 
though distinct from each other, are distinctively one. Spirit is 
the essential of to be, and Matter is the essential of to exist, so that 
wherever there is one, there is the other ; neither can there be an 
esse without, at the same time, an existere ; for esse 'is by exis- 
tere, and not without it ; and the existere is the counterpart and 
sustaining principle of the esse. Spirit cannot exist without Form, 
and Matter is the only 'principle of Form, but which Form can 
exist only by Spirit, which is the only principle of Life. An Esse, 
abstractly, which is the first essential principle of Spirit, cannot 
exist without Form, for what is not in a Form has no quality, and 
what has no quality is nothing. Hence, Spirit and Matter are dis- 
tinctively one, as soul and body, love and wisdom, goodness and 
truth, light and heat, husband and wife, heaven and earth. Nor 
can one exist, in either case, abstractly and independent of the 
other. We can distinguish these in thought, but not in act; for 
the moment one disappears, so, likewise, does the other; and as 
they are distinguishable in thought, but not in act, I can find no 
better term to express the idea than to say that they are distinctively 
one. 

In either Spirit or Matter, there is a successive order of grada- 
tions, and the degree or quality of one corresponds with the degree 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 581 

or quality of the other ; so that all Spiritual beings possess a body, 
coarse or sublimated, according to their interior condition — the 
body being the counterpart and representative of the soul. The 
Soul and Body, therefore, like every other coopposite principle in 
nature, are active and reactive forces, and the condition of one can 
never transcend the condition of the other. In virtue of this uni- 
versal law, it is clearly evident that Jehovah himself possesses an 
organized form, the materials of which are infinitely more subli- 
mated than anything of which our highest spiritual perception can 
conceive, — the sublimated process increasing in exact ratio as the in- 
terior or divine maintains the ascendancy over the exterior or natural. 
It was through this principle that our Lord's Humanity ultimately 
became invisible to the external senses ; and though the natural 
senses cannot see or touch His organized form, He has a body 
concreted from the material properties of nature, through which 
He now holds an immediate connection with the material universe, 
rather than a mediate one through Angels, as previous to the 
Incarnation. By His incarnation He descended through all the 
intermediate grades of material existence, which are too subli- 
mated for the natural perceptions, and connected Himself imme- 
diately with the ultimate forms of organized life. 

Evil Spirits attack the outer before they do the inner conscious- 
ness — they stimnlate the passions to an undue action before they 
can subjugate the soul. Their mode of attack is from the circum- 
ference to the centre ; whereas, the Lord operates from the centre 
to the circumference. Hence, as wickedness increased and the ul- 
timate planes of the Spiritual world became filled with evil spirits, 
it became necessary that he should descend into theultimatesof the 
Natural plane, that He might in propria persona, instead of through 
the mediate agency of Angels, as antecedent to His Incarnation, 
contend with the demons on the most ultimate planes of their in- 
festations and obsessions. The obsessing spirits recognized His 
presence upon their own plane of action, and were compelled to 
abandon the positions which they had previously occupied unmo- 
lested. They sought to flee to habitations which the Lord had 
not personally assumed ; and so plead to be permitted to enter the 
herd of swine, that they might flee his immediate presence. But 
in this they were evidently mistaken ; for His sphere, flowing 
through His assumed Humanity, had already so far impregnated 
the material elements upon which the swine, in common with the 
rest of animated creation, subsisted, that even these impure ani- 



582 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

mals were so infuriated by their presence, not being able to endure 
their fierce magnetic spheres, that they rushed from a precipice 
into the sea and were destroyed. But the man himself, on their 
departure, was clothed with the divine sphere and restored to 
sound reason, and from that moment became a follower of the 
Lord. 

In the ratio, as wickedness increases upon the earth, the Spirit- 
ual world — using this term as indicating an intermediate state be- 
tween heaven and hell — becomes filled with evil spirits who act as 
the mediums for the more subtle forces of the pit, and through 
whom the most infernal genii can obsess mankind. And through 
these obsessed mediums on earth, there flows a continued stream 
of infernal aura, which diffuses and propagates itself among the 
masses, and to a greater or less extent, infects with a moral poison, 
every unregenerated person. These, in turn, become more and 
still more corrupt, and, in passing from the world, they rapidly 
swell the number, and increase the intensity of the wickedness of 
the Spiritual world, which, in turn, acts with renewed force upon 
the natural world ; thus, constantly augmenting the active 
and reactive forces between the two states of existence by an ever- 
increasing degree and extent of wickedness. There is no denying 
the fact, that Spiritual infestations, obsessions, and sorcery, become 
rife, as wickedness increases, and that these debauch the public 
mind and people the hells through their influence. 

These reciprocal forces culminated in a remarkable degree both 
immediately antecedent to the commencement and the close of the 
Jewish dispensation. Egypt, in the time of Moses, was filled with 
shameless obscenities and terrific cruelties, which culminated in 
developing a large and influential class of Sorcerers and Magicians, 
who were capable of performing the most astounding feats of magic 
and necromancy. Through these mediums, evil genii operated with 
such efficiency, that they prostituted the religious element of the 
world to demon worship ; and virtue, whether as a principle of 
conscience or of expediency, became nearly unknown. And 
Rome, with all her opulence and learning, was infested and obses- 
sed, in the days of Herod, by an innumerable host of devils, who 
sapped it of its virtue, and deluged it with every species of human 
wickedness, and ultimately converted it into a howling wilderness. 
By far the largest share of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire 
were so completely possessed by evil spirits or infernal genii, 
either upon the interior or exterior plane, that it has been justly 



SPIRITUALISM : ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 583 

said that nine-tenths of the positive spiritual power by which the 
Jewish nation was then controlled was from the hells, and that 
nine-tenths of the remaining portion emanated from the grosser in- 
fluence of such Spirits as inhabited the refined portions of the 
natural sphere. At both of these periods, it became necessary 
that there should be a personal descent of the Lord to the earth — 
first into the Ark, afterwards into His Divine Humanity— in order 
to maintain the moral equilibrium in the human constitution — 
otherwise the hells would have so completely inundated the whole 
earth as to have deprived mankind of the remaining moral percep- 
tion, and thereby of any accountability. We may reasonably con- 
clude that the present state of wickedness, accompanied by num- 
erous demoniacal obsessions, is premonitory of His again appearing 
— not in any outward or visible appearance, but in Spirit — to es- 
tablish His Kingdom upon the earth. Sympathetically associated 
as the world is, popularized evils soon weaken the moral sensibility 
of even those who repudiate them. 

" There are certain spirits, called natural and corporeal spirits, 
who, w T hen they approach a man, do not, like other spirits, conjoin 
themselves with his thought, but enter into his body, and take 
possession of his senses, so as to speak by his mouth and act by his 
members : not knowing, at the time, but that all things belonging 
to the man belong to them. These are the spirits by whom men 
are possessed."* Spirits find access to man from two opposite 
points of ingress : first, the good, through the most interior prin- 
ciple which connects with heaven ; and second, the bad, through 
the most exterior principle which connects with hell. The first 
seek to extend their influence from the centre into the ultimate 
planes of life, hj first purifying the Will, and thence correcting 
the Understanding, and thus regenerating the individual. The 
second, by unduly stimulating the natural impulses, seek to pervert 
the Understanding, and through it, to seize upon the Will, and to 
subject it to their fiendish purpose, and thus demonize the individ- 
ual. Whoever voluntarily gives up his Will to another," as in the 
case of entranced and most impressionable mediums, may represent 
whatever character his despot wills him to personate. He becomes 
a slave, and worse, not to a natural, but to a spiritual tyrant, — he 
interposes a task-master in the place of God. Sorcerers, or persons 
who, in violation of Biblical precepts, willfully seek communications 
with familiar spirits, become at last divested, by their own act, of 

* Heaven and Hell, p. 257. 



584 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

every Divine quality ; but in place thereof, they incorporate into 
their constitutions the magnetic properties of vile and wandering 
spirits, who, in their turn, are the mediums of the vilest conditions 
of the lower world. 

If demons succeed in securing full possession of the body and 
soul of the individual, they have found an instrument through 
which to carry out sorcery and deception upon the broadest scale 
upon the earth's inhabitants. " If the imagination is at their con- 
trol, they can mirror upon its lensic organs, such mock pictures of 
Paradise as might deceive the very elect ; personating upon that 
magic surface any human form, any human face. If the sensa- 
tions are subject, then, as by a more insidious process of serpent- 
charming, delights are produced, for deceptive ends, enrapturing 
as those said to follow the use of haslieesh, or pastilles of opium. 
If they obtain mastery of the organs of speech, they can talk, sing, 
preach, argue, pray — do all in fine with the voice, and more, than 
its rightful owner can. If the whole line of the nervous system is 
opened to their electrical projections, they are then in a condition 
to produce the vibratory concussions, known as the ' spirit rap- 
pings.' If from internals to externals the whole body be thoroughly 
at their command, they can eliminate from it the various chemical 
constituents in their higher potencies, and through the absorption 
of its particles reproduce objective ' spirit hands,' as they are styled, 
which are condensed odylic and magnetic substances, that, like bub- 
bles in the shape of organs, maybe seen by the natural eye and made 
entities to touch. Having thus the various paraphernalia, they can 
swing the mediums through the air, and induce motion upon mate- 
rial substance ; all of which would be disbelieved were there not 
now many thousands of unimpeachable witnesses to the phenomena. 
Archimides only asked for a point on which to rest his lever, de- 
claring that then he could move the world. Mesmerism, in the 
hands of ignorance, or presumption, or self-will, or greed of gain, 
or any illicit desire, becomes the black art, and affords the point of 
lodgement for the Archimedial engine, pressed into action by the 
brawny shoulder of the organic Titan of the pit. It is to Mes- 
merism, conducted chiefly as a means of gain, or an idle pastime 
in the first instance, that almost all the disorderly Spiritual Medium- 
ship, almost all of the Lower World Spiritualism of the nineteenth 
century, may be distinctly traced. We have to deal in Christen- 
dom now, not with Satan bound within the confines of the invisi- 



SPIRITUALISM : ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 585 

bio world, but with Satan through the rupturing of the odylic 
spheres of the human race, " let loose for a season." 

" The rupturing of the odylic sphere, encompassing the human 
person, is attended, in the second place, with a corruption of the 
nervous fluids, which breed infinitesimal lava, to become parasites, 
not merely upon, but in and through the entire congeries of organs, 
making up the form. These taint the atmosphere which surrounds 
the corporeal body, until the man carries with him, in first princi- 
ples, the Apocalyptic plagues. The person thus made in soul and 
body a demoniacal agent, becomes poison organized. The breath 
imparts it ; the touch communicates it ; it darts through the eyes ; 
it impregnates garments. Whether avowedly media or not, they 
communicate a slow, saturating, eating fire, which, imperceptible 
to natural vision, impregnates and silently destroys the odylic 
spheres of old and young. To sit at a seance with persons in this 
condition, is to inhale the very virus with which they are infected. 
It may produce no immediate results ; nevertheless, if there is any 
peculiar taint in the soul, or body through which it can find its way 
into life's citadel, unless arrested by a counteracting divine power, 
it prepares the new subject, if not for demoniacal possession, at 
least for demoniacal persecutions. The seance becomes, whenever 
out of place, out of order, out of utility, the devil's bateau and the 
unconscious medium the decoy, to bring human creatures within 
the reach of the deadly marksman of anti-Christ."* 

Admitting as I do the fact of spiritual commerce, I have been 
frequently asked why I discard the possibility of a familiar 
intercourse with angels as well as with devils ? why has the Lord 
left the way open to the latter and closed it against the former ? 
if one can communicate with man, why can not the other? To 
every reflecting mind the reason is obvious. Devils are in posses- 
sion of such infernal arts, and at the same time hid from mortal 
view, that they are capable of deceiving the most wary researcher 
after truth. To this end they can transform themselves into angels 
of light, — they can personate the Lord, our kindred, or any one 
with whom we may desire to communicate, — they can read our 
thoughts, reveal past secrets or future events, — they can perform 
such wonders as to astonish the skeptic and bewilder the credulous. 
Were angels and devils permitted alike to communicate, by what 
means, then, could we distinguish between them ? This would be 
impossible ; and the door would be thus open for the most terrible 
* Rev. T. L. Harris. 



586 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

impositions upon mankind ; impositions which could not fail to 
ultimate in a complete subversion of all social order. To avoid 
such a calamity we are explicitly commanded to regard not them 
that have familiar spirits, neither to seek after wizards to be defiled 
by them, and are assured that the soul that disregards this precept 
shall be cut off from among his people. Hence, to those who 
heed the divine injunction, there can be no deception, for they 
know that as intercourse with familiar spirits is forbidden, that 
angels cannot occupy forbidden ground ; so that whatever spirits 
communicate, be their pretensions what they may, they are of no 
higher order than devils whose unceasing efforts are for the 
destruction of mankind. An honest man cannot rob his neighbor, 
for in the attempt to commit such an outrage he would become a 
villain ; neither can an angel commune with mortals in the manner 
of familiar spirits, for in any such attempt to violate a divine pro- 
hibition, he would become a devil. It is folly to say that God has 
not sufficiently regarded the interest of mankind in this particular ; 
for He has abundantly warned us against the influence of seducing 
spirits, or giving heed to doctrines of devils ; hence, whoever does 
it, he does it at his peril and in open violation of the divine injunc- 
tion ; and facts abundantly demonstrate that no vice is more ter- 
rifically pernicious in its consequences. 

To become magnetized by Spirits is to become charged with the 
properties of demons. Through the influence of their infernal 
aura, the imagination may be made to teem with all desired images 
projected into the mind ; their ears are opened to soothing and 
enrapturing melody ; their passions are quickened into a newness 
of life ; and their judgment is made to approve of every sinful im- 
pulse. All now becomes smooth sailing — no evil to suppress, no 
moral good to crave that they do not already possess. The demon 
well knows how to soothe his medium, producing, at will, pictured 
scenes of Heaven upon the imagination, and pleasing emotions upon 
the senses. The spiritual clairvoyant and clairaudient, whom they 
have enslaved, are in this condition, Thus charmed and infatu- 
ated, no appeals can be made to arouse them from their fearful con- 
dition. With them sensation is more than philosophy, passion 
more than religion. The demon, like the skilful Mesmerist, 
however thoroughly depraved, can will his subject into a sensa- 
tional rapture and produce the wildest mental hallucination. This 
continues until the demon secures full possession of his oracle, and 
then Old Heathenism becomes re-established, and hell has free 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 587 

access to earth. But now comes the change ; the demon, instead 
of soothing his medium, rules with a rod of iron, and mounts his 
new victim, and rides him or her into every shameless abomina- 
tion. Every lawful effort is defeated, and every wicked desire is 
gratified. Having returned to a new human body — to all practi- 
cal intents its own — a new career of power now opens before the 
smooth and subtle Anarch. They use the brains of their mediums 
as the workshops of the vilest sophistry, their tongues to utter slan- 
ders and cursings, and their bodies to gratify their lusts. They 
artfully insinuate into the minds of their slaves that they cannot 
retrogress, that there is no hell to shun, no evil to repel ; and 
those who have any remaining consciousness of the existence of evil, 
are persuaded that the only way to rid themselves of it is by an 
unrestrained indulgence in it, that they may thus exhaust its force. 
The first thing that strikes the attention of the Biblical student 
is the fact that in no instance does the Angel of the Lord seize 
upon the faculties or forces of one individual in order to communi- 
cate through them to another. This is an usurpation of the indi- 
vidual freedom which God himself holds sacred, and hence belongs 
alone to the side of evil. So far as the voluntary forces of an in- 
dividual are used by another, whether by permission or otherwise, 
it is an obsession which, to an equal degree, destroys the personal 
freedom, and through it his responsibility, — an outrage which devils 
only can perpetrate. The Lord and angels, on the contrary, 
speak personally to the individual, not through him to the third 
person ; but delegates him to convey the message to the parties 
whom they would benefit. " And the Lord spake unto Moses," 
not through him, " saying speak unto the children of Israel," etc. 
" The word of the Lord came to me saying, go and cry in the 
ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord,"* etc. " The 
Lord also spake unto Joshua, saying, speak to the children of 
Israel, saying, Appoint out for you cities of refuge whereof I spake 
unto you by the hand of Moses," etc.f " Then the angel of the Lord 
commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and 
set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing-floor of Oman the 
Jebusite." % " And the angel answered and said unto the woman, 
Fear not ye ; for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was cru- 
cified. He is not here ; for he is risen as he said. Come see the 
place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples 
* Jer. 2 : 1. t Jo:h. 20 : 1. \1 Chron. 21|: 18, 



588 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

that he is risen from the dead ; and, behold he goeth before you 
into Galilee ; there shall ye see him ; lo, I have told you."* 

These passages selected at random, are sufficient to show the 
manner in which both the Lord and His angels communicate with 
men. They talked with their chosen agents as one person talks 
with another ; but they did not control the vocal organs or the 
hand of an individual to give communications throughhim while he 
did not know what was being done. Rationality was augmented 
rather than diminished, no spasmodic action, no ghastly contortions. 
In each and every case there was a specific object in view, and a 
definite order given, no useless words, no useless ends. The Lord 
speaks and requires, but does not coerce men to obey. Every 
pledge is faithfully fulfilled on the conditions proffered. What an 
infinite contrast between this and the lying wonders of " familiar 
spirits." No perceptible object in view, or if one appears, it sooner 
or later proves to be one of malignity, — words multiplied without 
meaning, senseless sophistry or shameless obscenity, interspersed 
with such tokens of sympathy as best tends to stimulate the carnal 
appetites into a clamorous activity, no restraint to vice nor incen- 
tive to virtue, the physical forces wasted and the morals paralyzed, 
heinous contortions and premature age are among the chief charac- 
teristics of this forbidden commerce. 

Again : angels never speak in their own names nor by their 
own authority ; in their messages it is a "thus saith the Lord," and 
their personality is lost in the Divine personality — their mission, 
rather than themselves, is the only important consideration. No 
pseudo deities, nor renowned or kindred names, are set forth to 
delude and entice from truth and rectitude : no parleying with vice, 
nor attempting to crown it as virtue ; no pleadings in behalf of 
the supremacy of Nature nor of an innate Divinity within man ; 
but Nathan-like, they bring into our understanding a conscious- 
ness of our own evils and the importance of confessing and forsak- 
ing them. They produce in the unregenerated no states of ecstacy, 
in which, as if freed from material limitations, the soul, with subli- 
mated senses all alert, seems to be floating through illimitable ether, 
wrapped in ravishing harmonies of tone and color and exquisite 
sensation, in which they behold interminable landscapes peopled 
with glorified immortals ; this is the work of demons, through 
whose magic arts the unsuspecting and deluded soul is charmed 
and enticed onward to irretrievable ruin. 

* Matt. 28 : 5—7. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 589 

I cannot here forbear to pass a reproof on all those, who, whilst 
they profess a reverence for the Gospel revelation, patronize, at 
the same time, the infidelity of the Sadducees, as touching angels 
and spirits, and all extraordinary dispensations ; for to deny all 
communications with the spiritual world, whether by visions, or 
any other means, naturally leads to Atheism : and their pernicious 
reasonings in this way have had dreadful effects upon the present 
times, by weakening the sense of religion and conscience in the 
lower classes of the people, and at the same time exposing all to the 
malignity of evil spirits by depriving them of a knowledge of the 
intimate relation of the two worlds. No inconsiderable share of 
the present disorders of society have arisen from the pernicious 
effects of this unwarrantable and unchristian skepticism. The 
belief of an intercourse with the other world, according; to the 
truth of it, keeps alive and cherishes faith in the immortality of the 
soul in all ranks of people, and familiarizes the mind to its existence 
separate from the body, and holds the mind positive to seducing 
spirits ; and it is not to be doubted that such gracious vouchsafe- 
ments were granted to the Jews under .the law, and have been 
continued since to the Church under the Gospel, in aid and assist- 
ance to man's faith in the written traditions of both dispensations ; — 
such being the goodness of the Lord in compassion to the weakness 
of our nature, and the dullness of our mind, which stand so much 
in need of fresh awakening incitements to call off our attention 
from earthly to heavenly things. And therefore we cannot but 
lament that any men of name in the church, and there are many 
such, (though little deserving of it on this account,) have gone so 
far beyond this line, as to assert that all extraordinary gifts and 
supernatural dispensations have totally ceased since the third cen- 
tury ; an assertion for which there is no authority save their own, 
and therefore we do upon much better grounds assert the authority 
of all history, — that extraordinary gifts and vouchsafements never 
did nor probably ever will cease in the church, nor that devils will 
ever retire from troubling mankind, till that which is perfect shall 
come ; that is, till such extraordinary become ordinary dispensa- 
tions, and angels shall converse with men as familiarly as they did 
with Adam before the fall ; and, in the meantime, we confidently 
rely upon the divine promise, that the same Lord who " gave 
some apostles and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some 
pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of 
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ," will fulfill the 



590 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

same promise, " till we all come into the unity of the faith, and the 
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure 
of the stature of the fullness of Christ."* 

St. Paul, speaking of the superior excellency and blessedness of 
the New Covenant, says : " But ye are come unto mount Sion, and 
unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an 
innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and 
church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God 
the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,"! etc. 
By which we are evidently to understand, that by Christ the me- 
diator of this better covenant, a more free intercourse with heaven, 
and a more intimate fellowship with saints and angels, is now 
opened for us, if we debar not ourselves of this blessed privilege. 
What then hinders our conversing with the inhabitants of the other 
world now — not after the manner of familiar spirits ; but after the 
manner of angels — as the patriarchs and prophets did of old ? 
Alas it is our own fault and unfitness for such company ! otherwise 
we might see the descending and ascending between heaven and 
earth, as Jacob did on the typical ladder. Why, but for our un- 
belief, our dullness, our earthly-mindedness, from which deep 
sleep as to the things of God if we are truly awakened ; we should 
see cause to own, in the words of the same patriarch when he 
awoke from the vision of the night, " surely the Lord is in this 
place and I knew it not. "J Heaven is as near to the heavenly 
soul, as the soul is to the body : for we are not separated from it 
by distance of place, but only by condition of state; thus when 
Elisha was surrounded in Dothan by Syrians, his servant saw not 
the chariots and horsemen (the angelic host) which surrounded his 
master for defence, as Elisha did, till the Lord opened his eyes. 
Just so it is with us; unbelief and sin keep us from seeing the 
things that are about us and near us, and also from giving credit 
to the reports of those who are in the experience of them. The 
Church of England formerly recognized the influence and guar- 
dianship of angels, as thus expressed in her collect for St. Michael 
and all angels : " O everlasting God, who has ordained and con- 
stituted the service of angels and men in a wonderful order, mer- 
cifully grant, that as thy holy angels always do thee service in 
heaven, so by thy appointment they may succor and defend us on 
earth." 
* Eph. 4:2. f Heb. 12 : 22—23 . J Gen. 28 , 16. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 591 

The spiritual influences by which we are surrounded are ofbotli 
sorts, good and bad. The latter act as the agents of Satan, to pro- 
mote the interests of his kingdom, and, like their chief, u go to and 
fro in the earth, walking up and down in it, seeking whom they 
may deceive and destroy. These are enemies to all goodness, and 
the willing associates of men of evil dispositions, over whom they 
have great power through the consent of their will, practicing upon 
their minds and understanding, with all deceivableness of unrighte- 
ousness, in them that perish ; because they receive not the love of 
the truth that they might be saved."* For centuries this power 
of enticing, prompting, and instigating such as became their willing 
captives to all kinds of evil ; and the heinous sin of the latter, 
in freely surrendering themselves into their hands to be practiced 
upon, stood confirmed even in the form of proceeding in the 
courts of jurisdiction, both in England and America, in the case of 
atrocious delinquents, it being part in the charge of indictment 
that they did such and such things at the instigation of the devil, 
thus inferring that it was an aggravation of their crime to volunta- 
rily choose the service of so bad a master. I have known a public 
medium to boldly stand up before an audience of 700 people, and 
declare, in the most emphatic manner, that if devils wished to use 
her, to show their power over human subjects, that she should 
never offer them the least resistance. Her horrid life demonstrated 
the sincerity of her statement. Though once, apparently, a noble 
woman, who moved in the higher circles of society, she became a 
vagabond and a wretch upon earth. 

To continue insensible of our danger from evil spirits, whether 
from ignorance, inattention, or the disbelief of them, is one of the 
sorest evils that can befall us, and is in the church at this day — a 
day, when the devil is taking the greatest advantage of the infidel- 
ity of the times — a misery to be lamented with tears of blood, as it 
leads to a fatal carelessness, exposes us to their subtle devices, by 
which they have enticed an untold multitude into the ways of 
destruction. Nor are they an enemy to be lightly accounted of, 
being watchful, diligent, and full of stratagems for our ruin; and 
having a hold upon the corrupt part of our nature, and knowing 
how to use it, being furnished with traps of all sorts to catch the 
unwary, and with baits adapted to every vicious appetite and in- 
clination, having a great part of the honors and riches of this 
world at their disposal, through the power and influence ot those 
* 2Thess-, 2:10. 



592 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

that are subject to them ; and, therefore, it behooves us to be well 
furnished for this part of our spiritual warfare, and to put on the 
whole armor of God, seeing those we have to do with are not to be 
subdued with carnal weapons; for here, as the Apostle tells us: 
" We wrestle against principalities, against powers, against rulers 
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high 
places."* And if we would succeed, we musj; become panoplied 
with the Word of God, and abstain from evil. 

What really constitutes a medium in a general sense, is a will- 
ing receptivity of a more positive principle. Strictly speaking, all 
mankind are mediums, differing more in their moral qualities than 
in the degree of their mediumistic condition. The Christian is a 
medium of angels and of God ; the Reprobate, of evil spirits and 
of the Devil. One may be no more mediumistic than the other, 
though the character of the manifestations is directly opposite. 
The devotional Isaiah, and the insane wanderer among the tombs, 
were equally mediumistic ; but one reflected the image of heaven ; 
the other, the disorders of hell. One exclaims, " O, come ye 
and let us walk in the light of the Lord ; " the other cries out: 
" What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high 
God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not." 

Aside from the peculiarities of temperament, and a healthy or a 
diseased physical constitution, there are two extreme conditions 
which strongly tend to conscious mediumship. These stand in a di- 
rectly antagonistic relation to each other. One consists in the sur- 
rendering up of the self-hood, a resistance of evil, and a strong faith 
in the Lord, ultimating in a life of uses ; the other consists in a re- 
jection of things sacred, and an unrestrained activity of the carnal 
impulses, ultimating in a life of abuses. On the one hand, the 
more holy a man becomes, the more open he is to the influx of in- 
spiration, and the more transparent becomes the veil which inter- 
cepts between him and angels ; on the other, the more wicked he 
becomes, the more absorbent he is to the influx of evil, and the 
more open becomes the gateway between him and devils. The 
forces of one culminate in miracles ; the forces of the other cul- 
minate in magic. In every age of the world these have run par- 
allel with each other. The miracles of Moses and Aaron, and 
the magic of the sorcerers and magicians of Egypt, were types of 
all which ever preceded or succeeded them. Though in many 
particulars they closely resembled each other in their ultimate 

* Eph. 6 : 12. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 593 

effects, the forces by which they were produced were from directly 
opposite sources. 

It is a law of spiritual existence, that a number of spirits can 
speak with a man together, and the man with them. And as in a 
Voltaic battery the strength of the electrical current is in propor- 
tion to the number and size of the plates used, so the intensity of 
the action of the magnetic forces upon the individual is in the ratio 
to the number and condition of the spirits with whom he is in 
immediate sympathetic relation. It is a well understood psycho- 
logical phenomenon, that the forces of any number of individuals 
may become focalized in the magnetizer, and through him upon 
his subject. In this way the magnetizer is frequently enabled to 
subdue the will of those whom, unaided, he could not sensibly 
affect, — in reality he becomes only the magnetizing medium of 
the multitude. On the same principle, an associated body of spirits 
sends one of their party to the man with whom they wish to con- 
verse, and this emissary spirit turns himself toward the man, and 
the rest concentrate their thoughts upon him ; to which he gives 
utterance. In this way a legion of devils may obsess a man at 
the same time, but through one obsessing spirit. Whence our 
Lord addresses the spirit in the singular number : '• What is thy 
name ? And he answered saying, my name is Legion, for we are 
many."* 

I knew of a case, at a social gathering, where an obsessed 
medium commenced a most shameful and vulgar tirade against the 
Christian Scriptures. Another extremely susceptible, but Christian 
woman, who happened to be one of the party, was suddenly seized 
by an influence which, as she subsequently stated to me, appeared 
to her to have been of sufficient power to have rent the building 
asunder, and cried out in the most emphatic manner, " Stay, 
Lest Thou be Smitten !" So potent was the spirit of this 
timely rebuke that the obsessed was so completely overpowed that 
she shook all over like an aspen leaf, and in a state of partial syn- 
cope was carried from the room. The inquiry naturally arose in 
the company, " What spirit is this which so effectually contends 
for the Scriptures ?" The reply was, " Not the spirit of Paul nor 
of Luther ; but the influence which controlled Paul and Luther. 
It is not one ; but many." 

Moreover, I have thoroughly tested the fact that in connecting 
with a person, we not only connect with all that belongs to them 

* Mark, 5: 9. 



594 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

proper, but also with every condition with which they are imme- 
diately associated. All persons are porous, so to speak, to the 
influences with which they are in sympathetic relation, and what- 
ever influences they take on from one, they become the mediums 
of conveying to others ; thus mixing not only the elements which 
are innate to the parties, but those with which they are in any way 
connected. Hence, whatever elements a man becomes possessed 
of, whether good or evil, he cannot avoid imparting to others. 
Each attracts to himself such spirits as correspond to the state of 
his own affections, and all of that class of spirits are either medi- 
ately or immediately in connection with him ; for it is through the 
loves, as the only conjunctive principle, that a conjunction is 
effected. It is, therefore, impossible for an angel to become con- 
joined to a man only so far as the man himself loves the good and 
true by incorporating them into a life of uses ; and it is impossible 
for a devil to conjoin himself to a man only so far as the man loves 
the evil and the false by incorporating them into a life of abuses. 
Whence the good man is immediately connected with and sustained 
by such stratas of the heavens as are in keeping with his own con- 
ditions ; but the evil man is immediately connected with and urged 
on by such stratas of the hells as can flow into his affections. And 
as man is seldom, if ever, wholly divested of every impulse of good 
during his natural life, he is immediately connected with both good 
and evil influences ; one enticing him from vice, the other from 
virtue. The class of spirits is changed with every changing state 
of the individual, for they can sustain relations to him no longer 
than he voluntarily maintains the conditions with which they can 
become conjoined. 

44 There are present with every man," says Swedenborg, " both 
good and evil spirits : by good spirits his conjunction with heaven 
is effected, and by the evil, his conjunction with hell. These 
spirits are inhabitants of the world of spirits, which is the inter- 
mediate region between heaven and hell. When these spirits 
come to a man, they enter into all his memory, and thence into all 
his thoughts; the evil spirits entering into those particulars of his 
memory and thoughts which are evil, but the good spirits into 
those which are good. The spirits are not at all aware that they are 
present with the man, but, while they are so, they imagine that all 
the particulars which belong to the man's memory and thoughts 
are their own ; neither do they see the man, because the objects 
of our solar world do not fall within the sphere of their vision. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 595 

The greatest care is exercised by the Lord to prevent the spirits 
from knowing that they are present with a man; for if the v knew 
it, thev would speak with him, and then the evil spirits would de- 
stroy him ; for evil spirits, being in conjunction with hell, desire 
nothing more ardently than to destroy man, not only as to his soul 
— that is, as to his faith and love, but as to his body also. Tt is, 
otherwise, when they do not speak with man," as is now frequent- 
ly the case, " they do not then know that they draw from him 
the subjects on which they think, and, also, those on which they 
converse with each other, for they draw the subjects on which they 
converse with each other from the man, but believe, all the while, 
that they are their own, and every one esteems and loves what is 
his own ; in consequence of which the spirits are made to love and 
esteem the man, although they are not aware of it. That such a 
conjunction of spirits with man really exists, has been made so 
thoroughly known to me by the uninterrupted experience of many 
years, that there is nothing which I know more certainly. 

" The reason that spirits who communicate with hell are also 
adjoined to man, is, because man is born into evils of every kind, 
whence his first life is derived entirely from them; wherefore, un- 
less spirits were adjoined to man of the same quality with himself, 
he could not live, nay, he could not be withdrawn from his evils 
and reformed. On this account, he is held in his own life by evil 
spirits, and withheld from it by good spirits. Through the agency 
of the two, also, he is placed in equilibrium ; and being in equi- 
librium, he has liberty, and can be withdrawn from evils, and in- 
clined to good, and good can also be implanted in him, which 
could not possibly be effected were he not in a state of liberty ; nor 
could he be endowed with liberty, did not spirits from hell act on 
him on one side, and spirits from heaven on the other, the man 
standing in the middle. It has also been shown me, that man, so 
far as he partakes of his hereditary nature, and thus of self, would 
have no life, if it were not permitted him to be evil ; nor yet if he 
were not in a state of liberty ; and further, that he cannot be 
driven from good by compulsion, and that what is infused by com- 
pulsion is not permanent : as also, that the good which a man 
receives in a state of liberty is implanted in his will, and becomes 
as it were his own ; and that these are the reasons why man has 
communication both with hell and heaven."* 
* Heaven and Hell, p. 292—3. 



596 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

A knowledge of infernal arts we inherit in the nature of evil, 
whence the spirit of a bad man as soon as released from the body, 
comes into a knowledge of these acts of himself: and being more 
immediately allied to the earth through his recent connection with 
it, he is used as a medium for a combined class of spirits of more 
subtle wickedness to communicate through mediums on earth 
whose moral state corresponds with their own. The potency of 
the manifestations, whether physical or mental, depends alike upon 
the degree of wickedness of the more recently departed spirit and 
his earthly mediums ; for the lower they are in the scale of moral 
turpitude, the more completely are they in relation with the more 
subtle, because more potent, forces of the hells. 

While a man remains in the body his evils are u veiled over 
and wrapped up in external probity, sincerity, and justice, and 
in the external affection for truth and goodness, of which the man 
makes a verbal profession, and puts on an appearance for the sake 
of the world ; under the mask of which his evil lies so concealed, 
and so buried in obscurity, that he is scarcely aware himself that 
so much profound wickedness and cunning exist in his spirit ; nor, 
consequently, that he is, in himself, such a devil as he becomes 
after death when his spirit enters into itself and into its own 
nature. But then such profound wickedness manifests itself, as to 
surpass all belief. Thousands of wicked things then burst out of 
the evil itself; among which are some that are of such a nature, 
that they cannot be described by the words of any language. -Of 
what kind they are, has been granted me to know, and also to 
apprehend, by many experimental evidences ; because it has been 
granted me by the Lord to be in the spiritual world as to my spirit, 
and in the natural world as to my body, at the same time. This I 
am able to testify, that their profound wickedness is such, that 
scarcely one instance of it, out of thousands, admits of being 
described."* 

Strange as this statement may appear to those who have not 
duly reflected upon the subject, it is evidently founded in the very 
nature of the human constitution ; for, so far as a man is in evil, 
he is either mediately or immediately in connection with all the 
evil that exists of a like nature, or of which his evils are either the 
fruit or the germ, — -for the connections extend alike in both direc- 
tions ; and no sooner is he removed from external restraints, as is 
the case when released from the body, then he comes into the actu- 
ality of all the evils with which he is consociated. As the won- 

* Heaven and Hell, p. 577. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 597 

derful intelligence and virtues of the angels are the result of being 
in relation with the Infinite Source of these qualities ; so the 
ingenuity and subtle wickedness of devils are the result of being in 
relation with these principles. Whatever a man conjoins himself 
to, he becomes a receptacle of, not only of the immediate conjunc- 
tion, but of all there is upon that plane, — a fact most terrific in its 
consequences upon the evil doer ; but not less important in its 
salutary effects to those who do well, — and what he is receptive of 
he is sure to manifest whenever the restraints to its manifestation 
are removed. 

It is front this principle that there is an infinite contrast between 
the heavens and the hells. In this life we see men mingling in 
the various social relations, and so nearly resembling each other in 
their moral bearing, that it would be impossible for any one to 
determine from the external plane, which possesses the most divine 
qualities ; whence we are forbidden to judge of any one's moral 
state until it brings forth its legitimate fruits by which they become 
known ; while, at the same time, there may be as great a contrast 
between them as between light and darkness, heaven and hell. 
One, by his interior loves, may be connected with all that is evil ; 
the other with all that is good. One may be a devil incarnate 
sustaining a fair exterior from motives of worldly policy ; the other 
an angel as to his spiritual state, walking amid the scenes of wick- 
edness and worldly ambition ; but loving only the right and his 
God. At death, though so nearly allied in their outward relations 
and seemings, each enters into that condition of life for which lie 
has an affinity, nor can he ever become divorced from it, and must 
accept of its consequences, whatever they may be. But to become 
open to all the combined forces of the infernal host forever, is of 
all things, the most terrible to contemplate — a hell that knows no 
mitigation, no end. 

Having said this much upon the general principles of Spiritual- 
ism and the relation of the two worlds, I shall now proceed to 
consider the subject under two heads : First, the abundant testi- 
mony of the Bible in behalf of Spiritual action and communion, 
and the prevalence of a like belief, in all ages, and among all 
nations ; and second, the moral bearings of the present prevailing 
Spiritual phenomena. 

1. — The Scripture testimony and prevalence of belief. 

It is not my intention, under this head, to speak of the phenom- 
ena of modern Spiritualism, or to offer any special proof of its 

76 



598 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

verity. Upon this many volumes have been written, to which the 
reader, who wishes to become further informed upon the subject, 
is respectfully referred. But I intend to show that Spiritualism, 
in one mode or another, is coextensive with the history of man, 
and has characterized, to a greater or less extent, all ages and na- 
tions, differing not so much in its facts as in the nature of its 
influence and moral bearings. When this part of our Essay is 
completed, it will be easy to concede the Spiritual origin of much 
of the present phenomena. 

No principle is more frequently referred to, in the Christian Scrip- 
tures than the one now under consideration. Spiritualism, in some 
form or other, makes up the warp and woof of that Sacred volume. 
In fact, the volume itself is the great Spiritual Medium connecting 
Heaven and Earth, God and Man — the only medium through 
which we can approach the Divine Humanity, pervaded by the 
Supreme Divinity. Remove from its sacred pages all that is said 
in reference to the connection and commerce between the two 
worlds, of the protection of angels, and the infestations and obses- 
sions by devils, and the very soul of these pages vanishes, and 
leaves us absolutely nothing but the dark material side of the ques- 
tion, which festers into blank Atheism, without God and without 
hope in the world. Spiritualism pervades the Bible from the first 
page to the last ; from the Creation to Christ — a period of 4,000 
years. All through the Jewish Scriptures, on the one hand, the 
power and guardianship of Angels are every where spoken of, while, 
on the other, the severest judgments are pronounced against wiz- 
ards, witches, and the communers with familiar spirits : u There 
shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his 
daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an 
observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a 
consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or necromancer, for all 
that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord ; and be- 
cause of these abominations the Lord thy God cloth drive them out 
before thee."* " Thou shall not suffer a witch to live."f " A man 
also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall 
surely be put to death ; they shall stone them with stones ; their 
blood shall be upon k them."J It is said of Manasseh, that u He 
causeth his children to pass through the fire in the valley of 
the son of Hinnom ; also he observed times, and used enchant- 
ments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with familiar spirits and 
* Deut. 18, 10 : 12. f Exod. 22 : 18. J Lev. 20 : 27. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 599 

with wizards : he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord, to 
provoke him to anger."* " And the soul that turneth after such as 
have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, 
I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from 
among his people."! " Regard not them that have familiar spirits, 
neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them : I am the Lord 
your God.":j: u And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto 
them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and 
that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the 
living to the dead?"§ u And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the 
midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof; and they 
shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have 
familiar spirits, and to the wizards. And the Egyptians will I give 
over into the hands of a cruel lord ; and a fierce king shall rule 
over them, saith the Lord, the Lord of host."^[ Also read the 
entire 28th chapter of 1st Samuel. A more thrilling account of spir- 
itual intercourse is no where to be found upon record. The nature 
of all this testimony, in connection with much other which might 
be cited, goes cfearly to show not only the fact of spiritual inter- 
course, but also that it is only when our evils have so far insulated 
us from God that we can get no response from Him, that we turn 
to familiar spirits through wizards and witches. And it is proper 
here to remark, that what the Bible designates as ' divinaters,' 
' enchanters,' i necromancers,' 4 wizards,' i witches,' communers 
with familiar spirits, etc., belong to the same class of persons as 
the different orders of spiritual mediums of the present day. 

As in the Old Testament we find the Divine prohibition against 
communing with familiar spirits and the judgments against the me- 
diums, so in the New, we have abundant specific evidence of the 
terrible consequences growing out of an infringement of this law. 
Christ seemed not to have made his appearance until it became in- 
dispensable in order to relieve an almost universally infested or an 
obsessed people. For several successive generations the world had 
been growing more and still more corrupt ; and as this vast multi- 
tude passed through the portals of death, the majority of them 
became spirits of so gross a character, that they continued to linger 
about the earth, and sought every opportunity to connect them- 
selves with its inhabitants. Gross, sensual and vulgar, even too 
coarse themselves to flow into man, they formed a strata of moral 

*2 Chron. 33 : 6. t Lev. 20 : 6. J Lev. 19 : 31. § Isa. 8 : 19. 1 Isa. 19 : 3, 4. 



600 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

subversion, by which the natural mind became impregnated and in- 
fluenced ; and as men and women absorbed the virus of these 
spirits by invoking their presence through daily communion, it, in 
connection with their social depravity, formed the conditions within 
them, through which malignant Genii could obsess them and con- 
trol all their actions. These demons, then as now, sought to de- 
ceive the world through their mediatorial subjects and votaries, 
and to bring it into subjection to their rule. In this they so far 
succeeded, that the High Priest at Jerusalem, and the chief Rulers 
of the Roman Empire, rather than the rabble, became the perse- 
cutors and murderers of the Lord and of his Apostles. 

The oracles among the later Greeks and Romans, were in all re- 
spects identical with the young men and women obsessed by spirits 
at the present day. The mania for soothsaying, fortune-telling, 
prophecy, and divination, drove many of the inhabitants of the 
earth to consult spirits, and the disorderly, spiritual worship of 
fictitious gods and goddesses, which was the essence of real Pagan- 
ism, was conducted through the same series of necromantic ope- 
rations, by means of which spirits are now invoked. But much 
more was then known, both traditionally and experimentally, con- 
cerning occult things, than now. The practice of magic extended 
throughout all the East, and as far West as Thule itself. The 
cities of the greater and lesser Asia swarmed with diviners and 
soothsayers of every sort. In the Paphian mysteries, Sirens en- 
tered into the bodies of women and obsessed them. Wherever 
there was a temple there existed a positive centre, not so much 
for spirits who lived in the subtler parts of Nature, though these 
were there, as for the Infernals themselves, personating as demons 
now personate the illustrious men who are revered on earth at the 
present time, and all such as were called upon by their devotees. 
That class of spirits who now personate the Washingtons,the Frank- 
lins, and others, amused the credulity of the ancients with the 
name of Poseiden, Jupiter, Mars, and others of the pseudo deities. 
In Scandinavian wildernesses, and in the human sacrifices of the 
Ancient Gauls, Odin and Thor and many other barbaric deities 
were represented in the same way. These spirits aspired to bear 
rule among the sons of men, thronging the gates of birth to in- 
ject their venom into infants, oppressing those whom they sought 
to injure with terrible melancholy and with insatiable ferocity, 
endeavoring to prostitute the virtue of the world. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 601 

In the towns and villages of Judea, unable to prostitute to 
themselves the religion of the Hebrews, they became enraged, and 
possessed and obsessed all such human organizations as might be 
open to their power. Dumbness, blindness, deafness, lameness, 
and every species of insanity resulted from these possessions, and 
they were extended throughout the land. The casters out of the 
demons for hire were a class of magnetic men who practiced sor- 
cery, and operated by means of magical rites. They traveled 
from village to village, but the possessions became grievously worse 
in consequence of their pretended exorcisms. The bodies of men were 
rapidly succumbing to this Satanic influence throughout the earth, 
while a small class of the learned were Materialist, possesesd of subtle, 
corporeal Genii, who infatuated them with the idea that there was 
no life beyond the sensuous plane of Nature. 

" The hells themselves connected with our planet, were in a con- 
dition of the wildest anarchy. Breaking the ancient bounds by 
which they had been confined and set in order, they had become 
extended until, in spiritual appearance, one fourth only of the disc 
encompassing the planet, was uninvaded. Equilibrium was thus 
almost destroyed. The temple at Jerusalem was the only focal 
centre for the descent of the heavens to the earth. The disorders 
of the Jewish people were becoming rapidly so extreme that the 
descent of the Divine sphere into the Holy of Holies was 
through a continued stratum of inverse and warring influences. 
The hells w r ere rapidly extending, as to spiritual appearance, and 
seeking to inclose the orb."* 

Wickedness became rampant throughout the w r orld. The most 
sacred social ties and the deepest moral obligations were alike dis- 
regarded. Husbands put away their wives for no moral reason, 
and women everywhere became the courtesans of all who sought 
their charms. The infamous Messalina, the wife of the imbecile 
Claudius the Roman Emperor, who yielded herself to every lust 
and trampled decency and morality under foot ; and the voluptu- 
ous Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt and the mistress of Julius Caesar 
and Anthony, were types of the virtue at the closing scene of the 
Jewish dispensation. The sentiments of honor and gallantry have 
introduced a refinement of pleasure, a regard for decency, and a 
respect for public opinion, into the modern courts of Europe and 
the caste of America ; but the corrupt and opulent nobles of Rome 
gratified every vice that could be collected from the mighty conflux 
* Rev. T. L. Harris' Arcana, p. 466. 



602 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

of nations and manners. Secure of impunity, careless of censure, 
they lived without restraint in the patient and humble society of 
their slaves and parasites. The emperor, in his turn, viewing 
every rank of his subjects with the same contemptuous indifference, 
asserted without control his sovereign privilege of lust and luxury. 
The governmental and jurisprudential regulations were of the same 
moral stamp. The crown was sold at public auction and worn by 
the meanest men. The judicial bench, as now in New York, was 
filled by debauchees and villains, and became the throne for the 
reception of bribes, to gratify some secret revenge, or to bestow 
some personal favor. The refinement of Rome was but a super- 
ficial polish ; morality, nobility of soul, and strength of character, 
were held in no estimation. The people when no longer invigor- 
ated by war, or the labors of the field, sank into luxury and effem- 
inacy ; they sought their gratifications in the barbarous sports of 
the amphitheatre, gladiatorial combats, and the contests of wild 
beasts, and gave themselves up to the enjoyments of the luxurious 
baths with which the city was amply provided by the emperors, for 
the purpose of withdrawing the citizens from the consideration of 
graver matters and too close a scrutiny of their own conduct ; and 
in which both sexes mingled in a shameless debauchery. In the 
city of Jerusalem it was no better. From the time of Malachi to 
a little before the advent of Christ, during which period prophecy 
and vision ceased in the Jewish church, (at least in persons of a public 
character,) was the most horrid degeneracy of that people from all 
things sacred and moral ; intestine divisions, bribery and libertin- 
ism, diffused their poison through church and state ; the very 
temple was often polluted with the blood of hostile factions ; and 
the high priest-hood was bought and sold, nay, the nomination to it 
submitted to heathen princes, who conferred the same on the highest 
bidder, thus fulfilling the truth of Solomon's words, " Where there 
is no vision the people perish."* 

It was under this terrible state of things that demoniacs fear- 
fully multiplied. Between the inhabitants of the Spiritual world 
and those of the Natural world, the action and reaction was equal — 
as the intensity of one increased so did that of the other. The more 
susceptible members of society became the receptacles of its mag- 
netic elements, which, when united with their own innate deprav- 
ities, formed the material basis of Spiritual obsessions. The Mag- 
dalenes who through illicit relations absorbed the life properties of 

*Prov. 29:18. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 603 

the corrupt male constitution, on the one hand, became equally 
receptive of vile spirits, which constantly stimulated them to new 
acts of wickedness, on the other. The more crimes they com- 
mitted, the more devils they became infested with, or obsessed by ; 
and these, finding in their human subjects a material plane from 
which they could again operate in the affairs of this life, made 
their victim the avenue through which to infuse their cursed influ- 
ence upon mankind. Then as now, the strength of mediumship 
of un regenerated men and women was in exact ratio to the inten- 
sity and depth of their depravity. And many mediums now trav- 
eling our own country have learned by extensive experience that 
the power of the spiritual manifestations through them, is in the 
degree of the promiscuousness of their sexual commerce. In 
this way the finest elements of the human constitution — the prin- 
ciple which more than any other connects the Natural with the 
Spiritual, is degraded to the lowest possible condition and forms a 
complete basis for demoniacal operations. It was from this cause 
that the brutalization of the masses of the Roman people was so 
great, that virtue as a real fact, in moral consciousness, was nearly 
extinct. Lust ruled in the centre of their Wills ; and the bodies of 
men and women were energized as they became the seats of the 
enormous appetites of demons. 

It was in this crisis of the world that the Lord took upon Hid?- 
self the human through which He entered into immediate connec- 
tion with the hells, by subjecting himself to the temptations of de- 
mons, conquered them in his own person, and then drove them 
from their victims. It has often been sneeringly said that God 
could not be tempted. In reply it is sufficient to say, that His as- 
sumed Humanity, before purified from the evils inherited from the 
mother, could. In this God and Satan met. Without this temp- 
tation there could have been no immediate connection between 
them, consequently no victory. The contest between the heavens 
and the hells is alone upon the plane of the human ; and it is here 
where the workers of iniquity are judged, condemned and exclud- 
ed from the Divine presence. " For judgment I am come into 
this world."* The victory was complete in his own assumed Hu- 
manity ; and through that it is no less so in all who wed them- 
selves to it ; for His Human was made Divine and one with the Su- 
preme Divinity, whence no devil can approach either it or those 
who are within the protection of His sphere. By the assumption 

* John 9: 39. 



604 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

of the Human He invested Himself with Divine omnipotence even 
in the ultimate planes of life, not only to hold the hells in a state 
of subjection to eternity, but also to save mankind. In assuming 
the Human He made Himself the Divine good and truth in 
ultiraates, whence He is called the Word, and it is said that " the 
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." 

No sooner had he conquered every demon in His own person 
than all power was given into His hands. The palsied were made 
strong, the leprous cleansed, the blind made to see, the deaf to hear, 
the lame to walk, the bound released, the sick restored, and the 
dead were raised ; in short, every evil which devils had power to 
effect He was able to restore. " Then he called his twelve disci- 
ples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, 
and to cure diseases." In entering the Temple at Jerusalem, He 
found its outer courts infested with a certain class of demons, who 
desecrated its sacred precincts to the love of gain, and sought to 
extend their accursed influence into the inner sanctuary itself, but 
He smote the demons, and drove them from the Temple as typical 
of driving them from His followers. No mistake can be greater 
than the attributing of this act to merely human passion. A class of 
men would not thus have submissively retired from their accus- 
tomed marts of trade by the command and blows of a passionate 
individual without authority or influence. But the spirits which in- 
fested these men and enticed them into this desecration knew with 
whom they had to contend, and, like unclean things, they crawled 
away before Him. 

"Entering into the country of the Gadarenes, a man met him, 
who had been possessed with devils, who were of such a character, 
that they fed upon the exhalations of decay. They were not gross 
spirits, unable to pass into the spiritual world, but were such as 
possess bodies like them, conjoined with the subtle wickedness of 
the infernals. The chief of a group of these possessed the man, 
and held him many years in bondage. He was Samson-like in his 
power, breaking iron bands as if they were withes and strings. 
When he saw Jesus, the devil cried out, u What have I to do 
with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God Most High ? I beseech thee 
torment me not." With a voice, in which flowed forth the infinite 
tenderness, the Lord commanded him to depart ; but he was 
unwilling because he had made that man his home, nourishing his 
magnetic body from the very essence of his brain. When this chief 
of the demons perceived that he was about to be cast out, the agi- 



SPIRITUALISM : ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 605 

tations of his mind were communicated to his satellites, who were 
internals like himself. They feared, exceedingly, that they were 
about to be cast down into the hells, the sufferings of which already 
they had experienced, and chose rather to go into the herd of 
swine, that they might exist from the exhalations of those impure 
animals. But. the swine were unable to retain them, owing to 
their fierce and burning magnetic spheres, and, rushing headlong 
from a steep place, were destroyed. 

" Afterward He was called upon to heal the dying daughter of 
Jairus, a man of note. As He went toward the place where she 
lay, divine virtue flowing through and saturating the external gar- 
ments which .He wore, staunched an issue of blood with which a 
woman had been afflicted twelve years ; but this was effected 
through the faith of her who w r as restored, because in her inmost 
spirit she believed, and she exercised an act of spiritual faith which 
prompted her to touch the hem of the Lord's garment. After- 
ward coming to the house of Jairus, He found the body of the 
maiden in that condition in which the angels hold the spirit, 
unable to return into the external form, and awaiting to be con- 
veyed to its place in the invisible world. The angels themselves 
beheld Him. He turned to those friends and relatives who were 
weeping, and said, "She is not dead, but sleepeth," and com- 
manded the angels that they should arrest the process by which 
they were preparing her for the second life. They bowed their 
heads. He then whispered to her spirit and called it by name, 
and it returned to the external body, which was restored to physical 
health. Afterward He selected seventy of His disciples and sent 
them out interiorly pervaded by His Divine sphere, and they 
were as men who walked in a divine dream, for the Lord Him- 
self flowed through them in His potency of love. He gave them 
power to cast out devils from those who were obsessed ; and, 
standing over the bodies of such as were subject to the control 
of evil spirits, they commanded them to depart. Hearing the 
divine voice in these disciples, for the Lord spoke through them, 
the restless and the infernal spirits, both such as were called 
serpents and scorpions, because of their enmity and their blas- 
phemy, together with multitudes of an inferior class of every de- 
scription, were completely_deprived of their power and fell paralyz- 
ed from the human tenements in which they had so long borne rule. 

" In this manner, both in His own assumed person and through 
His disciples, to whom He imparted a derivative power, He went 



606 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

forth, until the time when the external manifestation of His 
humanity drew near its end. The fear of Him extended through- 
out the subtler parts of nature, both among the wandering spirits and 
the demons there. It was as if a man should enter into a castle 
possessed by a band of robbers, and, after binding their chief in 
chains and fetters of iron, should proceed to expel from every 
apartment the armed and blood-thirsty revelers, releasing their 
captives whom they held in cruel thrall. There were many who 
secretly rejoiced, but these were of the milder sort. The whole 
world of demons in the subtler parts of Nature, as one man, rose up 
against Him, and Satan, their arch-destroyer, was present in their 
bands, journeying from place to place. The genii* from all the 
hells rose up into the minds of the grosser infernal spirits who were 
nearer the natural earth, till, at length there was not a solitary 
devil or satan in all infernus but that was roused to put forth his 
power. At length, in one combined body, the malice and the hate 
of all the infernal world took possession of the Jewish race. The 
demons who were cast down returned to possess the Pharisees, not 
by an external obsession, but by interiorly working upon their love 
of power, as the spiritual rulers of the Israelitish people. 

" By this time it was perceived by the temporal rulers of the 
Jews, that unless the external manifestation of the Lord were 
arrested, the nation would be ungovernable. The sick who were 
healed, the lepers who were cleansed, the dead who were raised, 
the obsessed and possessed who were delivered, the hungry who 
were fed, the widows and orphans who were comforted, the sinful 
who with forgiven sins had been restored to moral sanity, the 
fervent in spirit whose hearts began to be touched by such mighty 
tidings, — all these, like a breaking billow, when it invades a stag- 
nant lake, stirred up the deep and settled corruption and raised a 
mephitical cloud of diabolical antagonism in the minds of the un- 
holy. At this time it was proposed in the councils of the nation 
that Jesus should be put to death. The inspiration was of the 
infernal world ; the invisible actors demons ; the mediums for this 
communication religious guides, the sacerdotal classes, the chiefs of 
the public ecclesiastical institutions. Finally, when the Lord came 
up to keep the last Passover, the purpose was matured, but He 
knew Himself that he was going up to be betrayed as to His exter- 
nal. Nor was there a solitary thought in the minds of His enemies 
that was not open to Him. The visible glory of His divine 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 607 

influence by this time was so transcendent in its splendor that it 
shone as a sun."* 

Many are too apt to confound the spiritual gifts which Paul 
enumerates as in the Church, and which were developments of 
human nature in the process of regeneration under the operation of 
the Holy Spirit of our God, with the opposite manifestations of the 
spirits of departed men, as exhibited through the numerous media, 
who from a love of gain, pursued their art in the African, Asiatic 
and European cities ; but especially under the patronage of the 
Pagan religious authorities. There is no denying the fact, that it 
is to the operation of the Holy Spirit in the soul that we are 
indebted for all our perceptions of the nature of moral good and 
evil, and are induced to flee the one and cleave to the other. It 
constantly pleads with us against sin, and urges us to become 
reconciled to God. It descends as a breath, in peaceful silence, 
and when duly heeded, becomes a new and potential force within 
us, which raises us to a newness of life by resurrecting us from 
a moral death. But, alas, it is a most painful fact that under the 
broad and indiscriminate name of Spiritualism, the public mind, at 
the present time, ignorant of the nature of the spiritual world and 
its relation to this, confounds the spiritual states of perception and 
communication which our Lord came to establish among believers, 
with the opposite state of spiritual hallucination and possessions 
which He came to overthrow. The contrast between them is that 
between Miracles and Sorcery, Good and Evil, Heaven and Hell. 

No theological opinion at the present time is more unsettled than 
that pertaining to the condition of the soul immediately subsequent 
to death. A belief in the resurrection of the natural body and of 
a general judgment at some far-off, but undefined period, combined 
with an indefinite idea of the nature and quality of the soul, has 
so bewildered the judgment, that the wildest anarchy almost uni- 
versally prevails upon this all-important subject. Outside of the 
New Jerusalem Church and the Roman Catholic religion, it is 
difficult to find any well-defined opinion upon this point. It is to 
this cause more than to any other, that the fact of the communion 
of Spirits has been ignored on the one hand, as an impossible chi- 
mera, an imposition upon the credulity of the public, or an unwar- 
rantable superstition ; and on the other, accepted as a new system 
of religion. Any thing like a rational philosophy would have pre- 
vented either of these extremes. Luther, who shaped the destiny 
* Arcana by Rev. T. L. Harris, pp. 470-2. 



608 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

of the whole Protestant church, rejected, not only the Purgatory 
of the Romish theology, but the idea of any future state mediate 
between heaven and hell. He assumed without proof, that the 
dead cannot return ; that on the one hand, the beatitudes of heaven 
could not be even momentarily abandoned for any earthly consid- 
eration ; and on the other, that, the damned in hell would never 
be permitted to have a moment's relaxation from their horrid suf- 
ferings, consequently they could never escape their prison-house to 
again return to the earth. These premises being conceded, but 
one conclusion could follow, viz.: that there can be no communica- 
tion between the Natural and the Spiritual worlds, whence the the- 
ory of spiritual appearance or agency upon earth, is inadmissible. 
Hid behind this new theological hypothesis unfounded in truth, 
spiritual beings have freely played with the passions of men, and 
as their connection with the affairs of this world was not conceded, 
they met with but little or no resistance. To be repelled it is first 
necessary that they be understood. 

Heaven, Hell, and the Invisible World constituted the three 
terms by which Christians expressed their knowledge of the future. 
Three classes of spiritual individuals were supposed to exercise an 
influence on man in the flesh, viz. : the Angels of heaven, the 
Fiends of hell, and the Wandering Inquiring spirits of an invisible 
state. The influence of the first was conceded to be purely good ; 
the second, absolutely bad ; but the third was of a mixed and varied 
character. It was believed that through the angels we became 
connected with the principles of goodness and truth from God ; 
through the fiends with the primeval source of all evil and falsity ; 
but that the wandering spirit conveys a mixture of good and evil, 
truth and error, one or the other preponderating as he was more 
or less divested of, or established in, the principles of righteousness. 
These opinions characterized all Christian nations up to ihe time 
of the Reformation, when they became eclipsed by the absurd hy- 
pothesis that man on leaving the body is immediately prepared for 
either heaven or hell. Bursting therefore, as these modern mani- 
festations have done, upon the world, at a period when even a be- 
lief in the possibility of such phenomena was rapidly becoming ex- 
tinct, and passing with rapidity from section to section among 
classes unprepared, either by intellectual or moral training, for such 
demonstrations, it is not strange that thousands, yea millions, have 
been swept by this awful maelstrom into the gulf of everlasting 
ruin. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 609 

During a series of centuries the Roman Catholic Church held 
almost unlimited sway over the purses, the property, and the opin- 
ions of men. Through selfish and worldly ambition, more than 
any real love for holy things, men sought the highest position of 
Church as well as of State — in fact by far the greatest power and 
influence was attached to the former. Though the great princi- 
ples of their religion, for the most part, were true, they were des- 
ecrated to the most selfish ends. For their prayers they demand- 
ed a stipulated sum, licenses to commit evil were freely sold to en- 
hance the opulence of the priests, and their munificence was evi- 
dently to secure from the populace the reaction of personal luxury 
and influence. Thes^ abuses were carried to such a wicked extent, 
that Protestantism in rooting them up, at the same time rooted up 
much that was true and indispensable to a healthy religious condi- 
tion. Among the most important of these were the doctrines of 
Miracles and of an Intermediate state : two fundamental princi- 
ples which are clearly taught in both the Old ar.dNew Testaments. 
But the abuse of these, in connection with the doctrine of purga- 
tory and demoniacal obsessions, in the later ages of Catholicism 
were so extravagant, that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 
the Christain world was overrun with absurd legends of diabolism 
and lying miracles. The discouragement of learning and the 
withholding of the Bible from the masses, a necessary precaution in 
order to maintain a reign of despotism, enabled the priests to palm 
upon their ignorant and superstitious devotees the most absurd 
pretentions. Rival orders of monks and friars, for the purpose of 
gaining an ascendency over each other, pretended to cast out devils 
from everybody but themselves, and to perform miracles which had 
an existence only in their fabrications. The people were accus- 
tomed to place implicit confidence in their religious teachers, and 
readily accepted any statement from them, however absurd it 
might be. Each, from the Pope down, sought to demonstrate his 
superiority over others, by pretending to an influence over the un- 
seen world which they did not possess. 

The time of reaction arrived, and the pendulum of credulity 
swung to the opposite extreme. The Protestants, in their impet- 
uous zeal, were not contented with reform ; but they demanded a 
revolution, a revolution in which some great and imperishable prin- 
ciples were, for a time, swept away amid the rubbish of supersti- 
tion and priest-craft. In sweeping down the fundamental truths 
of Catholicism, as well as its abuses, truths upon which intelli- 



610 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

gence can easily found a rational credulity, they swept away the 
principles necessary for the maintenance of a religious faith in the 
Scriptures and in the personality of God. Separated in belief 
from the immediate influences alike of angels and of devils, the 
spiritual world receded from view, and a sterile deadness of faith 
and an incapacity for the higher spiritual receptivity of evidence 
soon veiled the mind, and a wide-spread infidelity, disguised as 
rationalism, took the place of a too easy credulity. The leading 
Catholics early predicted this result, and it was but a rational con- 
clusion which time has fully verified. Since the Reformation, the 
arts, sciences, and literary attainments, have been wonderfully 
accelerated and quite generally diffused among the populace ; but 
of man's connection with the spiritual world and relation to God, 
the most profound ignorance still prevails ; an ignorance which far 
surpasses that of the early Christian Church, or even that of the 
Dark Ages. In this respect, three hundred years has not been 
able to restore to us what we lost in the Reformation. The whole 
tendency of the irreligious portion of the popular mind is either 
already engulfed in pantheistic or atheistic sophistry, or rapidly 
merging toward it. In fact, the pulpit itself has not wholly 
escaped this general tendency ; and nothing could have more thor- 
oughly tested its skepticism, its materialism and its infidelity than 
has modern Spiritualism. For it has not ignored Spiritualism so 
much on the ground of any innovation, or of its horrid corrupting 
tendency, as upon an obstinate disbelief in the possibility of spirit- 
ual intercourse. Instead of accepting the clearest Scripture doc- 
trines upon this subject, and of warning the public against the 
dangers of a forbidden commerce, and showing wherein this dan- 
ger lies, the pulpit, with a few exceptions, has shamefully content- 
ed itself, either with ridicule, silent contempt, or an outright denial 
of the facts. The people, in the meantime, everywhere witnessing 
the phenomena, but ignorant of the nature of the influence with 
which they are in contact, and by which they too often become 
controlled, and finding it every way in perfect keeping with their 
unregenerated impulses, even urging them to still more unrestrained 
action, they have been eager to accept it as a new system of re- 
ligion, which would speedily conduct them into Elysian fields where 
they could easily gratify every prevailing greed. Hence, though 
many of the Roman Catholic writers stand confessedly chargeable 
with an over-credulity, it would be fortunate if many of the Pro- 
testant writers and divines were less censurable than they, for in- 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 611 

credulity. The medium between these two extremes will be found 
the proper ground from whence to take the clearest view of these 
matters. Sure it is, that we are at this time very dangerously in- 
fested with doubting and unbelief, as to things supernatural ; and 
that the general idea of reformation, amongst us, means rather a 
departure from certain Popish errors and superstitions, than any 
advance in true faith and godliness. 

Vast and specific as is the evidence of the New Testament as well 
as that of the Old, in reference to man's immediate relation to the 
Spiritual world, and the numerous infestations and obsessions 
there spoken of as characterizing evil doers, it cannot but become 
a matter of surprise that any Christian person should ever have 
questioned such an absolute Biblical truth. The very first com- 
mission our Lord gave to His Apostles was to go forth and heal 
the sick and cast out devils. Not the Apostles and disciples only, 
but many others, exorcists, made it a professional business to cast out 
devils for hire. The former operated in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, and became the mediums of the Divine potency, which the 
devils could not withstand ; the latter operated by animal magnet- 
ism, and sometimes succeeded in effecting a temporary relief, but 
more frequently failed. " Certain of the vagabond Jews, exor- 
cists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits, the 
names of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom 
Paul preacheth. And there were seven so?is of one Sceva, a Jew, 
and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered 
and said, Jesus, I know, and Paul I know ; but who are ye ? And 
the man in whom the evil spirit was, leaped on them and overcame 
them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of the house 
naked and wounded.''* To quote all the passages which bear upon 
this point, would be to transcribe no inconsiderable share of the 
New Testament. I shall, therefore, proceed, as briefly as possible, 
to show the universality of other testimony. 

The most ancient Egyptians, who lived long prior to Abraham, 
believed that beneficent Spirits preserved health ; but that evil 
ones entered into man, and produced fits, madness, and almost 
every form of disease. Air, earth, water, plants, and animals, were all 
supposed to be under the influence of genii, good or bad. They 
supposed that evil spirits and the souls of impure men, entered into 
swine, which they regarded as the most unclean of all animals, 
* Acts 19 : 13, 16. 



612 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

Confucius, who lived 550 years before Christ, says : " How vast 
is the power of Spirits ! An ocean of invisible intelligence sur- 
rounds us everywhere. If you look for them, you cannot see them. 
If you listen, you cannot hear them. Identified with the substan- 
ces of all things, they cannot be separated from it. They cause 
men to purify and sanctify their hearts ;• to clothe themselves with 
garments, and offer oblations to their ancestors. They are every- 
where above us, on the right and on the left. Their coming can- 
not be calculated. How important that we should not neglect 
them." The Five Sacred Books compiled by Confucius, also 
favors belief in a multitude of Spirits pervading the universe, which 
opinion was drawn from the Golden Age of the past,- and which 
points to a Golden Age in the future. 

In the Sacred Scriptures of the Ancient Persians, called the 
Zend-Avesta, we have the following instructions: "Abstain from 
thy neighbor's wife. Avoid licentiousness, because it is one of the 
readiest means to give Evil Spirits power over body and soul. 
Strive, therefore, to keep pure body and mind, and thus prevent 
the entrance of Evil Spirits, who are always trying to gain posses- 
sion of man." It was a universal belief of the Chaldeans and Per- 
sians, that the Magi who filled the office of priests, could cast' out 
Evil Spirits from the obsessed and diseased. 

Pythagoras, a celebrated philosopher, the founder of that school 
which is called the Italic, and who was born about 586 years ante- 
cedent to the commencement of the Christian Era, believed that 
demons and spirits, both good and bad, are dispersed throughout the 
universe, carrying sickness or health to man, and communicating 
knowledge of future events by dreams and modes of divination. 
Tradition asserts that he professed to cure diseases by incantations 
which cast out evil spirits. Heroes he defined to be "rational minds 
in luminous bodies," a class of spirits intermediate between demons 
and human beings. He further says that " every quality which 
a man acquires originates a good or a bad spirit, which abides with 
him in this world, and after death remains with him as a com- 
panion." 

Diodorus Siculus,a Greek historian, who flourished in the fourth 
century, says : — "The Egyptians declare that Isis has rendered 
them good services in the healing sciences, through curative meth- 
ods which she revealed to them ; that now, having become immor- 
tal, she takes particular pleasure in the religious services of man, 
and occupies herself particularly with their health ; and that she 



SPIRITUALISM : ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 613 

assists them in diseases, revealing thereby her benevolence. This 
is proved, not by fable, as .among the Greeks, but by authentic 
facts. In reality, all nations of the earth bear witness to the power 
of this goddess in regard to the cure of diseases by her influence. 
In dreams she reveals to those who are suffering the most proper 
remedies for their sickness ; and following exactly her orders, per- 
sons have recovered, contrary to the expectations of the world who 
have been given up by all the physicians." 

In India, says L, Maria Child, " There is universal belief in 
Evil Spirits, of various ranks and degrees of power, from gigantic 
demons, who attack the orbs of light, down to the malicious little 
Pucks, who delight in small mischief. They suppose these enter 
the minds of men, producing bad thoughts and criminal actions, 
and, also, take possession of the body, producing insanity, fits, and 
all manner of disease. They can be cast out only by some form of 
holy w r ords pronounced by the priests, with ceremonies prescribed 
for such occasions. While Sir James Forbes was presiding judge 
in a Hindoo district, a petition was sent to him stating that a cer- 
tain woman had been, for a long time, possessed by two Evil 
Spirits, and that the petitioner's daughter, having been with this 
woman, and witnessed certain conjuring tricks, and heard the dev- 
ils talk, came home, and fell down on the bed, without sense or 
motion, and continued so for hours. She continued to have these 
fits for two months, at the end of which time, she told her parents 
that one of the devils had come out of the woman and entered into 
her, tormenting her all the time to offer it food and sacrifice."* 

We are also informed that Animal Magnetism and Clairvoyance, 
which usually accompany the phenomena of demoniacal posses- 
sions and obsessions, are known and understood among the Hindoos. 
It is said that they can bewitch people by keeping their eyes stead- 
fastly fixed on them ; and that when they are brought sufficiently 
under the influence of the magnetism, they can travel through the 
air invisibly, and bring intelligence from remote places with incred- 
ible swiftness, and can read the secret thoughts of those with whom 
they are in mental relation. Mr. Forbes mentions several individ- 
uals who could see what was occurring in distant places, and read 
the thoughts of people who came into their presence. 

Psellus, a Christian, and sometimes a tutor (saith Cuspinian,) 
to Michael Parapinatius, Emperor of Greece, a great observer of 
the nature of devils, holds they are corporeal, and have aerial 

* Progress of Religious Ideas, p. 121. 



614 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

bodies, " that they are mortal, live and die," (which Martianus 
Capella likewise maintains, but our Christian philosophers explode,) 
"that they are nourished and have excrements, they feel pain if 
they be hurt, (which Cardon confirms, and Scaliger justly laughs 
him to scorn for,) and if their bodies be cut, with admirable celerity 
they come together again." Origin, Tertullian, Lactantius, and 
many ancient fathers of the Church, hefd that in their fall their 
bodies were changed into a more serial and gross substance. Bo- 
dine, also, by several arguments, proves angels and spirits to be cor- 
poreal. But what is most absurd, he goes still further and en- 
deavors to show that as the globular form is the primeval form of 
all substance, that all spirits, angels, devils, and likewise souls of 
men when departed are absolutely round, like the Sun and Moon, 
as that is the most perfect form ; but adds that " they can assume 
other aerial bodies, all manner of shapes at their pleasures, appear 
in what likeness they will themselves, that they are most swift in 
motion, can pass many miles in an instant, and so likewise trans- 
form bodies of others into what shape they please, and with admira- 
ble celerity remove them from place to place, (as the Angel did 
Habakkuk to Daniel, and as Philip, the deacon, w T as carried away 
by the Spirit, when he had baptized the eunuch ; so did Pytha- 
goras and Apollonius remove themselves and others, with many 
such facts,) that they can represent castles in the air, palaces, 
armies, spectrums, prodigies, and such strange objects to mortal 
men's eyes, cause smells, savors, etc., deceive all the senses, 
most writers of this subject credibly believe ; and that they can 
foretell future events, and do many strange miracles. Juno's 
image spoke to Camillus, and Fortune's statue to the Roman 
matrons, with many such. 

Thomas Durand and others, also believed that they have under- 
standing far beyond men, can probably conjecture and foretell 
many things ; that they can cause and cure most diseases, deceive 
our senses ; that they have excellent skill in all arts and sciences ; 
and that the most ill iterated evil is quoris homine scientior, (more 
knowing than any man,) as Cicogna maintains with others. They 
know the virtues of herbs, plants, stones, minerals, etc. ; of all 
creatures, birds, beasts, the four elements, stars, planets, and can 
aptly apply and make use of them as they see fit ; perceiving the 
cause of all meteors and the like, and that they can deceive all our 
senses, even our understanding itself at once ; that they can pro- 
duce miraculous alterations in the air, and most wonderful effects 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 615 

conquer armies, give victories, help, further, hurt, cross and alter 
human attempts and projects, as it may please them ; and also can 
tell the secrets of men's hearts. It was believed that these spirits 
can perform such wonderful feats, that when Charles the Great 
intended to make a channel betwixt the Rhine and the Danube, 
that what his workmen did in the day, these spirits flung down in 
the night, and thus completely defeated him in his project.* 

u The negroes in their native country believe almost universally 
that the souls of good men, after their separation from the body, 
go to God, and the wicked to the Evil Spirits, whence at the death 
of their chief, they make use of the expression ' God has taken 
their souls.' They believe that the souls who go to evil spirits be- 
come ghosts, and re-appear, and because they preserve their incli- 
nations to do evil, torment those whom they dislike to sleep ; and 
besides flutter about in the air, and make noises and disturbances 
in the bushes. If any one, therefore, is said to appear on the third 
day after his death, it is a proof that he has not gone to God. 
The body of a Negro, of whom a wicked neighbor pretends to 
have seen the spirit, is not buried with honor among the Amina. 
They imagine also, that even the good souls are often compelled 
to pass by the evil spirits before they go to God, when this w T icked 
spirit endeavors to bring them into his power."f 

It is a matter of history that Evagrius, a Greek philosopher, 
after much labor, was converted to Christianity by the bishop, and 
brought him a bag of three hundred pounds of gold for the poor, 
saying Synesius should give him a bill under his own hand that 
Christ should repay him in another world. As demanded, Syne- 
sius gave the bill, and the third day after the burial of Evagrius 
he appeared to Synesius in the night, and bade him go to the sep- 
ulchre, and take his bill as Christ had satisfied the demand. On 
relating this to the sons of Evagrius, they remarked that it was 
very curious, as their father had insisted on their burying the bill 
with him, and they had done so. They all proceeded to the grave 
together, and on opening it found the bill in the hand of the dead 
man, and found the following superscription, in the undoubted 
handwriting of the deceased philosopher: "I, Evagrius, the 
philosopher, to thee, most holy Sir Bishop Synesius, greeting." I 
have received the debt which, in this paper, is written with thy 
hand and am satisfied ; and I have no action against thee for the 

* Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. 

t Richard's Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, vol. 1, p. 211. 



616 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

gold which I gave thee, and by thee, to Christ our God and 
Savior." 

Socrates and Sozomen both relate of Spiridion, a Bishop of Tri- 
methon, in Cyprus, that, when a country farmer, he had been an- 
noyed by robbers in his sheep-fold by night, but whom he found, 
bound fast there, one morning, and that this had been done by 
protecting spirits. A case somewhat similar to this occurred at 
the residence of Rev. Dr. Eliakim Phelps, in Stratford, State of 
Connecticut. These disturbances commenced on the 10th of 
March, 1850, and continued until the 15th of December, 1851. 
This aged clergyman, a man of high order of mind and strong 
nerve, assured me, that his son, some twelve years of age, had 
been stripped of his clothing by some invisible being, the clothing 
torn into narrow strips, and twisted into cords, with which they 
lashed the boy to an apple tree, in such a manner, as to render it 
impossible for him to extricate himself. He also assured me that 
his house was so infested with these annoying spirits, that it was 
impossible to keep any of the lighter articles in their place ; that 
they would be furiously thrown in every direction across the 
rooms ; that the most violent concussions were heard, as though 
some one was pounding beneath the stairs with a heavy mallet, etc., 
until he was finally obliged to abandon the premises. Socrates, 
also, relates a circumstance, which bears a marked resemblance to 
the spiritual manifestations of the present time. An individual 
confided a deposit to the care of his daughter, named Irene. She 
buried the money for greater security, and soon after died. The 
owner called on Spiridion for the money, who, knowing nothing of 
it, searched in vain to find it. u The man tore his hair, wept, and 
was in great distress." Spiridion bade him be calm, proceeded 
to his daughter's grave, called on her to inform him where the de- 
posit was concealed, received the information, and restored it to 
the owner. Periander, the tyrant of Corinth, obtained the same 
information of his deceased wife in reference to a deposit she had 
made previous to her death. 

In closing our remarks in reference to the Spiritual phenomena 
in Germany, I will make a somewhat lengthy but interesting ex- 
tract, from u The History of the Spiritual," by William Hewitt : 

" Returning from the Seeress to Kerner, himself, I have to re- 
mark, that not only this work, but in his others on kindred sub- 
jects, he has collected a number of narratives of apparitions and 
various other spiritual manifestations, all of them supported by the 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 617 

strongest evidence, both persons and places often fully named, in 
several instances certified as true by public authorities. Some of 
these have been included by Mrs. Crowe in her ' Night-side of 
Nature.' The}?- detail so many phenomena which have since been 
repeated amongst both American and English Spiritualists, that they 
are of the utmost value as proof of the permanent nature of these 
things. What occuried in Germany long before American Spir- 
itualism was heard of, and what has occurred in America amongst 
tens of thousands who never heard of these German occurrences, 
and since in England, all possessing the same specific characteris- 
tics, proclaim their own reality beyond the possibility of a denial. 
Furniture was moved from place to place, carried through the air, 
gravel and ashes flung about, where no human being could fling it. 
In the strange occurrences which happened to Council Hahnn and 
Charles Kern, at Kunzelsaw, in the castle of Slawensick, in Silesia, 
(which are given by Mrs. Crowe and also by Mr. Owen in his 
" Footfalls,") these gentlemen were afterwards joined by two 
Bavarian officers, Captain Cornet and Lieutenant Magule, as w r ell 
as by Counselor Klenk, all anxious to discover the cause of the 
phenomena, and they were frequently attended by Knittel, the 
castle-watch, Dorfell, the book-keeper, and Radezensky, the first- 
master. Hahnn had been a student of German philosophy, and 
was a materialist. Yet these gentlemen, Hahnn and Kern, for ten 
months, and the others, when present, were persecuted by the 
throwing of lime at them, when the doors were fast ; and not only 
so, but by the throwing at them and about, knives, forks, spoons, 
razors, candlesticks, and the like ; scissors, slippers, padlocks, what- 
ever was moveable, were seen to fly about, whilst lights darted 
from corner to corner. The knives and forks rose from the table 
before them, and fell down again. The most unaccountable 
thumping and noises attended these migrations of insensible articles. 
A tumbler was thrown and broken to pieces. Captain Cornet cut 
about with a sword at the invisible form that was throwing articles 
about, but in vain. What was strangest of all, they saw a jug of 
beer raise itself, pour beer into a glass, and the beer drank off: on 
seeing which, John, the servant, exclaimed, fc Lord Jeses, it swal- 
lows ! ' Kern, looking into a glass, saw a female in white, which 
greatly terrified him, and resembled the reported appearance of the 
White Lady often seen in the German palaces. After two months 
the annoyances ceased and never returned. No natural clue to 
heir solution was ever obtained. 



618 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

" What took place at the prison at Weinsberg, was made the 
subject of a strict investigation by a committee during the pro- 
ceeding of the events, but only to confirm their abnormal charac- 
ter. Dr. Kerner, who was the physician of the prison, was ordered 
to attend a woman confined there who complained of being dis- 
turbed by a ghost, which haunted her and importuned her to pray 
.for its salvation. The magistrate ordered him to report on the 
case. After having closely watched it for eleven weeks, Kerner 
reported that there was no doubt about the case ; the woman was 
haunted by a ghost almost every night, who professed to have been 
a Catholic of Wimmenthal, and who had been in this miserable 
condition since 1414, in consequence of having, amongst other 
crimes, joined with his father in defrauding his brothers. Others 
were appointed with Kerner to watch the case, and amongst them 
were Justice Heyd, Drs. Scyffer and Sicherer, Baron von Hugel, 
Kapff, professor of mathematics, of Heilbronn, Fraas, a barrister, 
Wagner, an artist, Duttenhofer, an engraver, etc. All were com- 
pelled to confess the reality of the phenomenon. A Mr. Dorr, of 
Heilbronn, amongst others, laughed much at the report of these 
things : but he was soon candid enough to write : ' When I heard 
these things talked of, I always laughed at them, and was thought 
very sensible for so doing ; now I shall be laughed at in my turn, 
no doubt.' The chief features of this case were these : — The 
ghost came nightly, and sometimes entered by a door, and some- 
times by a window, placed high and strongly guarded by iron bars. 
He often announced his coming by shaking this window violently. 
In order to know whether this window could be easily shaken, the 
examiners ordered men to attempt to shake it ; and it was found 
that it required six to shake it at all, whilst the spirit shook it vio- 
lently. The spirit was always preceded by a cool air, and attend- 
ed by the same cracking noise mentioned before, and familiar to 
the readers of the American case reported by Mr, Coleman. He 
was also accompanied by a cadaverous, stifling smell, which made a 
number of the prisoners, who always perceived it, sick. He was 
also attended by phosphorescent lights, radiating around his head. 
When he touched persons, the parts became painful and swollen. 
He opened doors and shut them at pleasure, though locked and 
bolted. He spoke quite audibly, and could be heard not only by 
the woman Esslengen, but by many others.* When the woman 

* I can bear testimony to fact", of a similar phenomena which I witnessed at a 
private residence in the city of Buffalo, State of New York. For more than an hour 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 619 

was liberated, she went with some of her friends, according to her 
promise to him, to pray on his grave at Wimmenthal, and he came 
visibly and thanked her. At going away lie asked to shake hands 
with her, and on her wrapping her handkerchief round her hand 
first, a small flame rose from it, and the burnt marks of his thumb 
and finger remained, as in the case of the Hamersham family in 
Stelling's Pneumatology. After this he never re-appeared at the 
prison, nor in the house of many of the examining gentlemen, as 
he had done. 

" Whilst Madame Hauffe was spending some time at Kerner's 
house, gravel and ashes were thrown about where no visible crea- 
ture was to throw them. A stool rose gradually to the ceiling, 
and then came down again. Footsteps were heard following mem- 
bers of the family from room to room. In another case, a square 
piece of paper floated about the room, and a figure appeared, 
attended by "a crackling noise and a bluish light." Such appear- 
ances and sounds have been abundant in Germany, but I shall 
close this enumeration of them by noticing the circumstance which 
corroborates the narratives of witchcraft. It was a fact, that when 
Madame Hauffe was in a particular magnetic state, she could not 
sink into her bath, but rose to the surface, and could only be held 
down by hand. She was also at times lifted into the air, as is the 
case with Mr. Home, and has been with many saints and devotees 
of all countries and times."* 

If we ransack among many of the ablest writers of Germany, we 
will find ample proof of their familiarity with the facts of Spiritual 
intercourse. Frederick von Meyer asserts that the " faith of all the 
earth, the testimony of the most enlightened people who ever existed, 
and the ineradicable feeling of our own bosoms, which are at bot- 

in company with three others, I carried on an audible conversation with a spirit 
which claimed to have been an inhabitant of the earth in the early part of the first 
century, and personally knew the " man Jesus." Her voice (for it claimed to be a 
female,) was loud, coarse and unnatural to the last degree ; and the character of 
her conversation was in perfect keeping with her intonations. She seemed to be 
familiar with what was transpiring in the city, and at our request would pretend to 
visit any family we designated, and after a few moments of silence, indicating her 
absence, would return and inform us how many were present, who they were, and 
what they were doing. The correctness of her reports I never learned. She finally 
gave utterance to such an unearthly screech, which no mortal could ever imitate, 
that for an instant the company were nearly paralyzed with fright — a screech, 
which, though I had for years been perfectly familiar with the spiritual phenomena 
and had long since ceased to be in any way excited by it, I should never care to 
hear repeated. 
* Pages 83—6. 



620 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

torn one and the same thing, reduce doubt to no doubt that there 
is a world of spirits from which they can return into this. That 
however incomprehensible they may be to the natural reason, the 
progress of our knowledge of the physical world and of the extra- 
ordinary nature of man, is every day rendering them more com- 
prehensible." 

Dr. Ennemoser in his works on Magic and Magnetism, has 
shown how far the ancients, the middle ages, and modern times all 
agree in the assertion and the experience of a spiritual world and 
power, rising forth out of the physical nature of man and showing 
itself above it. Free from any visionary tendency, and accurate 
in his observations, as a physiologist and physician, his knowledge 
of these subjects was the result of years of extensive observations. 
While in his Magnetism he does not admit ecstatics with their stig- 
mata to a higher than a magnetic sphere, he sees palpable proofs of 
spirit-agency in all the various relations of classic mythology, of 
Middle Age witchcraft and the reality of demonology, in the an- 
nals of the church and in the more modern developments. He 
most fully sanctions the revelations of Swedenborg, Bohme, the 
therapeutic power based on Christian inspiration of Gassner, and 
Greatrakes, and similar psychological truth. He also fully admits 
the spiritual inspiration of many of the saints, among which he speci- 
fies St. Theresa, St. Catharine, of Sienna, and others. u In the 
higher steps of clairvoyance and of genuine ecstacy soars the 
winged spirit wholly in the supersensuous regions ; gazes with the 
clearest perception on the subjects around it ; distinguishes delu- 
sion from truth, and understands perfectly the language of kin- 
dred natures. Strong in innate strength and fire, elevated above 
all earthly obstructions, in full society and accordance with spirit- 
ual powers, and undisturbed by the reflex of daily life, the creative 
spirit moves in the highest conditions of inspiration of pure enthu- 
siasm, and genuine felicity. When we thus know this higher and 
supersensuous condition of the spirit, and when we can no longer 
deny a higher than a mere natural, a spiritual and Divine influx, 
and when there is found particularly to exist a higher clairvoyance, 
and a true state of ecstacy, then the assertion of Worth in his 
' Theory of Somnambulism,' that clairvoyance is a phrenzy, or 
that of Strauss, that it is want of mind altogether, may be taken 
for what it is worth."* 

* Magnetisms, p. 229. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 621 

Eschenmayer, once a professor of practical philosophy in the 
University of Trobingen and an impartial observer, after having 
closely watched the phenomena by and through the Seeress of 
Prevorst, became fully established in the conviction of the truth of 
spiritual intercourse. His " Philosophy in its Transition into New 
Philosophy," " An Attempt to explain the apparent Magic of 
Animal Magnetism by Physical and Psychological Laws," " Psy- 
chology," u Philosophy of Religion," " Dogmatism drawn from 
Reason, History and Religion," " The Hegel Philosophy compared 
with Christianity," " Mysteries," and other smaller works prove 
him to have been a man of a high order of talent and learning. In 
the last named work he says: " Whoever will freely peruse these 
histories will quickly see that it is not merely with mathematical 
phenomena, but with the great demonstrative fact of communica- 
tion with the dead that we have to do. The question here is 
teaching and testimony which have the greatest interest and sig- 
nificance for mankind." 

Gorres in his Life and Writings of Suso, says : u To the clair- 
voyant, the inner world lying behind the Dream- World is laid 
open. He wanders in its full daylight. Placed in the periphery 
of his being, he looks forth towards its shrouded centre. All the 
rays of influence wfiich fall from above into the centre, and stream 
through its interior, strike against him who places himself in the 
midst of their streaming with his face directed towards their source. 
Its interior is to him objective, and he gazes upon it to its very 
depth, and glances thence over into that spiritual world from which 
they have come. * * * This looking into the inner spiritual circle 
is that of the saints only, and to them alone has it been permitted 
to declare what they have seen. In this rapport with God the 
soul ascends step by step, and presently is exalted above itself and 
the whole circle of clairvoyance. That which appears to the mere 
clairvoyant the deepest centre, included and shining in that region, 
now shows itself merely as a single point in the periphery of a 
higher arrangement, which, in its innermost part, belongs to a still 
higher centre, whose depth, by the continued apparatus of God, 
once more opens itself, and a view into a still higher centre allow- 
ed ; till finally, the soul, in the closest intercourse of which she is 
capable, knows God alone and He dwelling in her and thinking His 
thoughts in her, and being obedient to His entire will, which wills 
in her will, after that he has freed it from every touch of an evil 
compulsion. Here, then, first opens itself that profound heaven, 

79 



622 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

which the natural heaven includes in itself. Those three soul- 
circles, which a view into that deeper condition discovers, now 
show themselves as the symbolical indications of those three higher 
conditions which the inner life of the saints have opened up to us. 
All is now sacred which before was profane, and receives from the 
church consecration and sanction. Another healing than that of 
the body becomes the object of care ; a higher calculation begins, since 
the radical number of life has found its exponent in God ; and to 
express the whole in one word, esoteric mystical principle which 
has established itself in opposition to the exoteric, which is the 
foundation of clairvoyance. 

Kant, who strips away all historic proof of the existence of a 
God and alike ignores prophecy and miracles, was forced to confess 
the reality of a spiritual world and the possibility of our holding 
converse with its inhabitants. In 1758, when he was thirty-four 
years old, a Fraulein von Knobloch had asked his opinion of the 
wonderful things said of Swedenborg, which just then were exciting 
great sensation in Germany. From Kant's reply I make the fol- 
lowing extract : — 

" In order, most gracious Fraulein, to give you a few evidences 
of what the whole living public are witnesses of, and which the 
gentleman who sends them to me has carefWlly verified on the 
spot, allow me to lay before you the two following incidents: 

"Madame Harteville, the widow of the Dutch envoy in Stock- 
holm, some two years after the death of her husband, received a 
demand from the goldsmith Croon, for the payment of a silver 
service which her husband had ordered from him. The widow 
was confidently persuaded that her husband had been much too 
orderly to allow the debt to remain unpaid; but she could discover 
no receipt. In this trouble, and since the amount was considerable, 
she begged Baron Swedenborg to give her a call. After some 
apologies, she ventured to say to him, that if he had the extraor- 
dinary gift, as all men affirmed, of conversing with departed 
souls, she hoped that he w T ould have the goodness to inquire of her 
husband how it stood with the demand for the silver service. 
Swedenborg made no difficulty in meeting her wishes. Three 
days after this, the lady had a company of friends taking coffee 
with her ; Baron Swedenborg entered, and in his matter-of-fact 
way, informed her that he had spoken with her husband. That 
the debt had been discharged some months before his death, and 
that the receipt was in a certain cabinet which she could find in an 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 623 

upper room. The lady replied that this cabinet had. been com- 
pletely emptied, and amongst the whole of the papers this re- 
ceipt could not be found. Swedenborg said that her husband had 
described to him, that if they drew forth a drawer on the left side, 
they would see a board, which being pushed aside, they would find 
a concealed drawer, in which he kept his secret correspondence 
with Holland, and that this receipt would be found. On this re- 
presentation, the lady betook herself, with all the company, to the 
upper room. The cabinet was opened, they found the secret^ 
drawer described, of which she had hitherto known nothing, and 
in it the required paper, to the great amazement of all present. 

" The following circumstance, however, appears to me to possess 
the greatest strength of evidence of all the cases, and actually 
takes away every conceivable issue of doubt : 

" In the year 1756, as Baron Swedenborg, towards the end ot 
the month of September, at four o'clock on a Saturday evening, 
landed in Gottenberg, from England, Mr. William Castel invited 
him to his house with fifteen other persons. About six o'clock in 
the evening, Baron Swedenborg went out, and returned into the 
company, pale and disturbed. He said that at that moment there 
was a terrible conflagration raging in Stockholm on the Sucler- 
malm ; and that the fire was increasing. Gottenberg lies 300 
miles from Stockholm. He was uneasy and went frequently out. 
He said that the house of one of his friends, whom he named, was 
already laid in ashes ; and his own house was in danger. At 
eight o'clock, after he had again gone out, he said joyfully, ' God 
be praised, the fire is extinguished, the third door from my very 
house ! ' This information occasioned the greatest excitement in 
the company and throughout the whole city, and the statement 
was carried to the Governor the same evening. On Sunday 
morning the Governor sent for Swedenborg, and asked him about 
the matter. Swedenborg described exactly the conflagration, how 
it had begun and the time of its continuance. The same day the 
story ran through the w r hole city, where it had, as the Governor 
had given attention to it, occasioned still greater commotion, as 
many were in great concern on account of their friends and their 
property. On Monday evening arrived in Gottenberg a courier, 
who had been dispatched by the merchants of Stockholm, during 
the fire. In the letters brought by him the conflagration was des- 
cribed exactly as Swedenborg had stated it. On Tuesday morning 
a royal courier came to the Governor with the account of the fire, 



624 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

of the loss it had occasioned, and of the houses which it had' at- 
tacked; not in the least differing from the statement made by 
Swedenborg at the moment of its occurrence ; for the fire had 
been extinguished at eight o'clock. 

" Now, what can any one oppose to the credibility of these oc- 
currences? The friend who writes these things to me has not only 
examined into them at Stockholm, but about two months ago in 
Gottenberg, where he was well known to the most distinguished 
families, and where he could completely inform himself from a 
whole city, in which the short interval from 1756 left the greatest 
part of the eye-witnesses still living. He has at the same time 
given me an account of the mode in which, according to the asser- 
tion of Baron Swedenborg, his ordinary intercourse with other 
spirits takes place, as well as the idea which he gives of the con- 
dition of departed souls."* 

These well-attested facts clearly demonstrate that the Spiritual 
phenomena, which, for the few past years, have greatly agitated the 
American public, and to no small extent the European mind, and 
which many foolish and corrupt persons have accepted as a new sys- 
tem of religion, have broken out, to a greater or lesser extent, 
among all nations, and in every age of the world. The reappear- 
ance of the same identical phenomena at distant intervals and in 
remote countries affords the strongest possible proof, not only of 
their reality, but that they are the result of some law growing out 
of the relation between the Natural and the Spiritual worlds. The 
remarkable phenomena of the Seeress of Provorst abundantly con- 
firm those of Plato and Pythagoras. This illiterate and feeble 
woman, after the lapse of more than two thousand years, repeats 
some of the deepest physiological truths which the Grecian, Per- 
sian, Indian, and Egyptian ages ever uttered, a fact which many 
of the loftiest minds of Germany have thoroughly investigated and 
gladly confirmed. And American Spiritualism, which is almost as 
extensive as the nation, abundantly establishes the fact of all that 
has preceded it, and demonstrates beyond all successful controversy 
the reality of a social commerce between the two worlds, — nay, 
more, the awful horrors which attended upon the teachings of fam- 
iliar spirits — horrors which no pen can portray, and which eterni- 
ty alone can ever fully picture upon the canvas of the soul. 

This will lead us to consider 

The moral bearings of the present Spiritual phenomena. 
* Zur Anthopologic, Ueber Swedenborg, sec. 2. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 625 

" There were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be 
false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even deny- 
ing the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction, and 
many shall follow their pernicious ways ; by reason of whom the way of truth 
shall be evil spoken of."— 2 Peter 2 : 1, 2. 

I now enter upon a subject which I would gladly pass over in 
silence — a subject, the principles of which are but little understood, 
and of the horrors of which, the masses have no adequate concep- 
tion. Being thoroughly acquainted with these phenomena, and 
free from any undue prejudice, in exploring this field of wickedness, 
philosophy and facts shall be my only guides. In order to screen 
myself from the imputation of any exaggeration, and to more for- 
cibly fasten conviction upon the mind of the reader, I shall make 
free use of the testimony of others, but only such as can bear wit- 
ness to the truth from a personal knowledge of the subject under 
consideration. My sole object is to extricate as many as possible 
from this horrid delusion, and to warn others against giving heed 
to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, by which they are liable 
to be brought into like disorders and ruin. 

Many of the fundamental principles of Spiritualism were treated 
.of under the first division of the present essay ; but I purposely left 
others until we reached this part of our subject, in order that they 
might become more immediately associated in the mind of the 
reader with the present Spiritual phenomena. Some of these we 
will now proceed to consider. 

Spiritual Mediumship, in whatever form it may manifest itself, 
is simply a law of intensity , growing out of a peculiar susceptibility 
to spiritual influx. It may arise from either constitutional condi- 
tions, or be induced by certain continued habits of life. The human 
constitution, during mundane existence, is the only battle-field 
between the heavens and the hells ; and in this contest every indi- 
vidual is compelled to take an active part, so that he that is not for, 
is against one or the other of the parties, — there can be no neutral 
ground. By the freedom of the human will, man is placed in a 
moral equilibrium between these two contending forces ; and the 
septum which interposes between his external consciousness and 
the contending hosts is gradually absorbed, or suddenly rent, 
according to the degree of his activity on one side or the other. 
It is in virtue of this principle, a principle from which there is no 
escape, that every individual, to a greater or less degree, becomes a 
medium for ultimating the forces of either heaven or hell ; and 



626 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

whatever principle finds access into the natural planes of life, goes 
to make up the general stock of the moral constitution of the 
world ; and like every other principle in Nature, reproduces itself 
in a geometrical progression. 

Keeping these truths in view, it will be seen that the sources 
of spiritual influx may be either heaven or hell ; but that its ingress 
into the individual from these two sources, is through two directly 
opposite principles of the human constitution. Influx from the 
heavens is through the interiors into the exteriors ; but influx from 
the hells is through the exteriors into the interiors. Standing as 
these do, in directly antagonistic relation to each other, one is 
opened in the degree as the other is closed ; so that each individ- 
ual becomes a receptacle of divine influx in the ratio as the exte- 
riors are closed and the interiors are opened ; but of hellish influx 
in the ratio as the exteriors are opened and the interiors closed. 
And the only means of closing the exteriors to the ingress of the 
hells, is by keeping the commandments, which consists in suppress- 
ing, from religious motives, every disorder of life ; but the exteriors 
are opened and the interiors closed by an habitual violation of 
these precepts. By closing the external avenues of ingress, the 
Lord descends into the ultimate planes of the individual, by first 
casting out every infesting or obsessing influence and so setting in 
order the entire human constitution ; hence, " if ye would enter 
into life keep the commandments." 

So long as the avenues of these two principles of influx are open 
the individual contains the fundamental elements of both heaven 
and hell within himself, and it is the warring of these that chiefly 
defeats his ends of life. To resist evil is to secure success in all the 
affairs of this world so far as they tend to advance the highest in- 
terest of the individual ; but to be overcome by evil may secure 
the success of certain worldly enterprises, but at the expense of a 
lasting good. It is in this that the temptations of Satan chiefly 
consist. He offered the Lord, in His Humanity, all the kingdoms 
of the world and the glory of them, not to bless, but to defeat the 
end of his mission. His method is to barter principles for tempo- 
rary pleasures, the higher for the lower, heaven for hell ; and the 
history of the world clearly demonstrates that he took the most 
feasible means to accomplish so vile "an end. 

The great delusion of modern Spiritualists consists in their belief 
that notwithstanding their extraordinary vicious habits and rejec- 
tion of everything sacred, they are in consociation with angels and 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 627 

are led by them in most of the affairs of life. Accustomed to an 
intercourse with familiar spirits whose depraved condition corre- 
sponds to their own, and who have imposed upon the credulity of 
their unfortunate victims by inducing them to believe that these 
spirits are angels, they ultimately grow into such wickedness, 
through the deceptions of this forbidden commerce, that they lose 
all distinction between vice and virtue and adopt the opinion that 
angels approve of the most terrible and obscene abominations. 
" It is given to no one to speak with angels unless he be of such 
quality that he can consociate with them as to faith and love ; nor 
can lie consociate unless the faith be directed to the Lord and the 
love to the Lord, inasmuch as man by faith in Him, thus by truths 
of doctrine, and by love to Him, is conjoined, and when he is con- 
joined to Him, he is secure from the insult of evil spirits who are 
from hell. With others the interiors cannot be opened at all, for 
they are not in the Lord. This is the reason why there are few 
at this day, to whom it is given to discourse and converse with 
angels."* u To speak with angels of heaven is granted to none, 
but such as are grounded in truths originating in good, especially 
in the acknowledgment of the Lord, and of the Divinity in His 
Humanity ; this being the truth in which the heavens are estab- 
lished. Such being the case, it is evident, that to speak with 
angels is only possible to those whose interiors are opened by divine 
truths to the Lord Himself ; for it is into the interiors that the 
Lord enters by influx with man ; and when the Lord thus enters, 
heaven enters also. The reason that divine truths open man's inte- 
riors, is, because man is so created, as to be an image of heaven as 
to his internal man ; and the internal man is only opened by the 
Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord ; for that is both the light 
and the life of heaven. "f 

From these considerations, founded upon principles clearly evi- 
dent to every rational mind, it will be seen that the first essential 
conditions of communing with angels are the very conditions 
which the Spiritualists universally reject, viz. : a life of purity and 
faith in the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Starting out upon 
the hypothesis that Nature, of which man is a part, is divine, and 
that the unregenerated impulses are its inspirations, while at the 
same time they reject the Christian Scriptures, the Divinity of the 
Lord, the Personality of God, and the sanctity of the Christian 
Marriage, they sever themselves at one stroke from angels and 

* Arcana, paragraph 9438. t Heaven and Hell, paragraph 250. 



628 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

God, hence from every restraining influence, and without chart or 
compass, drift out upon the ocean of life, made doubly tempestuous 
by their intimate relation with the hells. So far, therefore, from 
the interior perceptions of their mediums being opened as is usually 
believed by them, they are more completely closed than among 
any other class of community ; but their exterior perceptions are 
opened, and usually to a remarkable degree ; but as it is the interior 
perceptions alone which connect man with the heavens and the 
Lord, they hold no direct connection only with Nature and the pit. 
Moreover, as familiar spirits become transformed in their imagina- 
tion into angels, they have no devils to resist and so accept of the 
teachings of their familiars, and worship Nature as supreme. The 
inversion is complete, and all that Satan himself could desire. 

Through this inversion, every thing presents a totally false ap- 
pearance. Their delusion robs them of all the more noble qualities 
of human beings, and renders them revengeful, suspicious, dishon- 
est, untruthful, adulterous, boastful, conceited and simple. They 
are no longer capable of any rational consideration, and philoso- 
phy becomes supplanted by sophistry. Their minds are void of 
interior judgment, and are united only with the bodily senses; so 
that unless the senses themselves decide, they can conclude noth- 
ing ; in a word, they are merely sensual and devilish, without the 
ability to perceive truth, or the inclination to practice good. 
Nothing, save the gratification of their own depraved appetites, 
delights them more than to attack essential truths, especially those 
of a religious nature, and so pervert them as to make them appear 
as falsities. They believe themselves to be philosophers and inspir- 
ed, whereas they are only sophistical and rendered verbose by the 
stimulus of the hells. 

All real understanding, which constitutes the rational principle, 
is formed by the union of spiritual and natural truths. Hence, ra- 
tionality cannot exist from either one of these alone, no more than 
the Earth could produce without the Sun. Above the rational 
principle is heavenly light, and below it is natural light, into which 
the heavenly light was designed to flow ; and this natural light will 
readily produce fungous growths corresponding to those which 
spring up upon the surface of the earth in the absence of the Sun. 
But if heavenly light does not flow into natural light, as in the 
case with those whose interiors are closed, man can form his conclu- 
sions only from his senses in the same manner as do the beasts, 
with, however, this difference, that he has intellectuality but not 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 629 

rationality, whereas the beast possesses 'neither. I would here 
caution the reader against confounding rationality with intellectu- 
ality. The latter is simply a comprehension and classification of 
natural truths, which may be learned from the natural sciences ; but 
it does not imply wisdom, for this is formed by the union of good- 
ness and truth, hence the result of purity of thought and life. But 
rationality is the ability to discriminate between truth and error, 
good and evil — not only on the natural, but ako on the spiritual plane 
of life. Devils are intelligent, but possess neither wisdom nor ra- 
tionality, for these belong alone to a higher order of beings, and 
the possession of which would have prevented them from becom- 
ing devils on the same principle as the light of day disperses 
the darkness of night. 

Hence the rational faculty derives its existence from the influx 
of the light of heaven, which influx can flow only into a moral life 
sustained from religious motives. But such a life cannot be sus- 
tained only through faith in the Lord and obedience to His pre- 
cepts as recorded in His Holy Word — whence there is a regular 
chain of connection between man and God : First, the Word ; 
second, the Divine Humanity ; third, the Supreme Divinity. To 
reject either of these is to break the chain of connection between 
the primary cause and the ultimate effect ; and no sooner is this 
broken than man loses sight of God, and becomes a worshiper of 
Nature, which closes up his interiors and opens his exteriors, so that 
his spiritual influx is immediately from the hells instead of the 
heavens. 

The Spiritualists, thus being in possession of neither rationality 
nor wisdom, they are deprived of all divine illumination, of all 
moral perception, and of all religious truths. Nor can they, so 
long as they continue in the practice of this forbidden commerce, 
rise above this deplorable condition of things ; for it is an outrage 
not only against Biblical precepts, but against every healthy regu- 
lation of society. The most of the mediums whom their votaries 
believe to be illuminated, are the darkest of all the race ; and hav- 
ing their interiors closed to the heavens, and having their exteriors 
opened to the hells, like bats and owls, which see only in the night, 
they see only what is evil as good, and false as true. Their illum- 
ination arises alone from nature and the lurid glare of the hells, 
and is total blackness of darkness to the truly Christian mind. 

Man was created with three discrete degrees within himslef 
that he might at the same time, have immediate conjunction with 



630 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

the Lord, consociation with angels, and relations with the earth. 
Through this arrangement he lives in the spiritual world as to his 
interiors, while at the same time he lives in the natural world as to 
his exteriors. His exteriors, which live in the natural world, are 
whatever things belong to his natural or external memory, and 
which thence become the subject of his thoughts and actions. 
These are the ultimates in which the Lord's divine influx termin- 
ates ; for when it cannot ultimate into an orderly basis it cannot 
exist in the individual. It is for this reason that we are so strenu- 
ously commanded to refrain from the evils of life ; for it is as im- 
possible to attain to a heavenly condition without the Divine influx 
as it would be for the atmosphere to become illuminated without 
the Sun ; and as the atmosphere derives from the earth the condi- 
tions upon which its susceptibility to illumination depends, so man 
draws from his mundane existence the conditions of Divine influx, 
Hence, so far as his earthly life is one of disorder, he destroys the 
conditions of Divine influx, and so of Divine illumination ; and 
this can never be remedied after he has become disconnected from 
the ultimate plane of existence. 

" Since, then, the Lord's Divine influx does not stop in the middle 
but always goes to its ultimates, it follows, that the connection and 
consociation of heaven with the human race are of such a nature, 
that the one subsists from the other, and that it would fare with 
the human race without heaven, as with a chain on the removal of 
the staple from which it hangs ; and with heaven without the 
human race, as with a house without a foundation. But since man 
has broken this connection with heaven by turning his interiors 
away from heaven towards the world and himself, through the 
love of self and the world, and thus has so withdrawn himself as 
no longer to serve as a baseand foundation for heaven, a medium 
has been provided hy the Lord to fill the place of such base and 
foundation, and to maintain at the same time, the conjunction of 
heaven with man. This medium is the Word."* 

The Christian Scriptures, here denominated the Word, also con- 
tain three discrete degrees, viz. : the natural, the spiritual, and the 
celestial, corresponding to the three discrete degrees in man ; and 
this, since man has broken the chain of connection between him- 
self and the Divine, by sin, is now the only medium of conjunc- 
tion between them. Primevally, when man was so open as to his 
interior principle that he was in communion with the Divine, there 
was an immediate conjuntion between them, and consociation with 
* Heaven and Hell, p. 304, 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 631 

the angels ; but no sooner did man turn himself from the Lord to 
the world, than this interior principle was closed so that it was im- 
possible to regain this relationship until man again became estab- 
lished in a life of purity. But this he could never do without Di- 
vine aid, and the avenue through which he had been accustomed 
to obtain this assistance was now closed up. Man had now to be 
met upon the natural rather than the celestial plane — he no longer 
knew any way to God, so God must find way to him. This He did, 
and established the Word to span the gulf between the two ; 
hence it is the only possible highway between the natural and the 
divine life. This is the first link in the chain of connection. 

But even this was not all nor the greatest work necessary to be 
done in order to save mankind from everlasting destruction. Devils 
had gained such complete ascendency over the human constitution 
that no amount of spiritual evidence or force could rescue man 
from their control. Two thousand years of personal teaching and 
direction of the Jewish nation through the Prophets, accompanied 
by the most astounding of miracles which it is possible for the 
mind to conceive, — the sea made to part before them for their 
escape from their enemies ; water to gush from the solid rock to 
quench their thirst ; a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire 
by night to guide them on their way; millions of men, women and 
children daily fed with bread from heaven ; their garments preserved 
from waxing old, and all this with a vast amount of other evidence 
during the period of forty years, was not sufficient to make them even 
a moral people. Well might our Lord say that they would not be- 
lieve though one rose from the dead. In order, therefore, to rescue 
man from the power of demons, He was obliged to descend into 
the ultimate planes of life, — the only plane upon which man had 
any conscious perception — and assumed the human through which 
He entered into immediate relation with the whole infernal host of 
hell, and conquered them in his own person. The Humanity of the 
Lord pervaded by the Supreme Divinity is the second link in the 
chain of connection. In the first, we have the material basis and 
verbal precepts ; in the second, the guiding spirit and potential 
force. 

By this means the Lord conquers the demons in all who plant 
themselves upon the truths of His Word ; for, with this He perpet- 
ually holds an immediate connection, and through it with the world, 
so that His saving influence reaches all, whether Christian or 
heathen, who do not hold themselves positive to it ; and every man 



632 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

who rejects the spirit of these precepts, whether he has ever heard 
of them or not, rejects the Word, and with it the Lord. To ac- 
cept of its precepts is to seek to attain to a holy life, so that the 
heathen who desires the right is a Christian in spirit though not 
in name. But we might as reasonably expect to breathe without 
lungs, or to circulate the blood throughout the organic structure 
without a heart, as to attain heaven without the Word and the 
Lord. " There is no other name under heaven given among men 
whereby we must be saved."* 

Now, a total rejection of these is among the first fundamental doc- 
trines of Spiritualists. In fact, I know of nothing, save the sancti- 
ty of the marriage institution, to which they are more hostile. The 
vilest and most shameless epithets are everywhere, both in public 
and in private, hurled against them. Lengthy harangues, invective 
in their expression, have repeatedly been delivered in every part 
of the country to prove that the tt Lord was either a mere human 
medium like themselves in association with familiar spirits, or an 
impostor ; and that the Bible is an imposition upon the credulity of 
the public, and ought to be expelled from society. I have never con- 
versed with a single Spiritualist, (and I have known a large majori- 
ty of the most influential ones,) who did not, in some way, manifest 
a hatred of the Lord and a contempt of all Biblical teaching. They 
believe that these teachings are unnatural, and, consequently, un- 
reasonable, and in many respects disgusting to the unperverted 
mind ; that the Bible imposes unreasonable restraints upon the na- 
tural appetites ; that it associates the sexes in pairs, and gives no 
latitude to promiscuity ; that it recognizes a principle of evil and 
of moral accountability ; a judgment to come ; the personality of 
God ; and the damnation of the wicked : all of which they repu- 
diate and affirm to be a delusion of bigots, held up to frighten men 
and women from the enjoyment of their sensual pleasures. 

u What are the facts," asks Rev. T. L. Harris, " of Spiritualism ? 
This opens the door to myriads of statements, from all the four con- 
tinents, and from every class and variety of men. Table-turning 
shows that viewless intelligences, good or bad, have power to han- 
dle material substances. So do those well-attested facts of human 
media carried through the air, of communications written, through 
pen or pencil, in broad daylight, with no corporeal hand in con- 
tact with the instrument ; but they prove more. The invisible 
fingers that control an accordeon or smite the keys of a piano, that 
* Acts 4 : 12. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 633 

can deposit phosphorus in locked cabinets, ignite lucifers, burn 
smoth-holes through glass, as with electric bullets, bolt and unbolt 
doors, produce, in fine, that vast series of actions in matter which 
contemporaneous testimony authenticates — unless restrained, may 
poison, if evil, all organizations — may destroy the complex body of 
the civilization of the world. 

" These attested facts demonstrate the presence of invisible yet 
embodied powers, which, unless restrained by rectitude within or 
iron compulsion without, may commit any atrocity with corporeal 
impunity. Where is the safeguard in nature ; in human prudence 
of a worldly sort ? If we are able to prove, either by impure teach- 
ings or wicked actions, on the part of any spirits, the existence in 
them of moral malignity, of moral disease, we have indeed more 
than a Trojan-horse within the walled city that protects home and 
altar, wife and child. What if Earth's old invader is gathering 
his gloomy and ferocious hosts for the last great conflict ? What 
if the destructive side of the phenomena of modern Spiritualism is a 
putting forth of the power of that 4 wicked one, with signs and 
miracles and lying wonders, whom the Lord shall destroy with the 
breath of His mouth and consume with the brightness of His 
coming ? ' 

u Happily, here we are not left in uncertainty ; all is clear, 
palpable, direct, conclusive. What are some of the avowed teach- 
ings of latter-day spirits, received, owned, and practiced by some 
of their associates ? First, that nature is God ; second, that God is 
an undeveloped principle, in process of evolution; third, that the 
Jehovah of the Bible was an unprogressed, ferocious human Spirit, 
who deceived ancient media ; fourth, thatathe Lord Christ was but a 
natural man, possessed of the ordinary mediumistic faculty of spir- 
itual clairvoyance ; fifth, that our Lord's theological and physio- 
logical teachings were but the reproduction of false mythologies ; 
sixth, that he held His power, great or little, because under the 
influence of spirits of departed men. 

" Shall we go further in this catalogue ? We open, then, an- 
other series of spiritual teachings. First, that all things originate 
in nature ; second, that man is a development of the animal ; 
third, the first parents of the human race, born of brutes were but 
savages of the most degraded type ; fourth, that all things and 
beings are governed by natural necessity ; that man possesses no 
freedom in the moral will ; fifth, that there is no retrogression, 
through moral disorders, either of the individual or of the species ; 



634 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

sixth, that vice is virtue in its improgressed or germinal condition ; 
that sin is an impossible chimera ; seventh, that self-love is the 
very centre and fountain-head of all human affections, the chief 
inspirer of all human or spiritual actions ; eighth, that the spiritual 
world is but a theatre for the continued evolution of human spirits, 
under the perpetual force of nature working through self-love., 

" Or again, turn to another series : First, that the Scriptures 
are not the Word of God, and that the Divine Spirit never vouch- 
safed utterance to man ; second, that the Messiah, our Redeemer, 
is not in any sense a Savior of the soul from sin, death, and hell ; 
third, that He never met in combat' our spiritual foe ; that He 
never overcame or cast out destroying spirits from their human 
slaves ; that He never made an atonement or expiation for sin ; 
that He never rose in His ransomed humanity from the grave ; 
that He never ascended, glorified to heaven ; that He never com- 
municated the Holy Ghost. Or again, to another : That there 
is no judgment to come beyond the grave, wherein the Lord shall 
adjudge the departed according to their deeds, the good to eternal 
life, the evil to everlasting punishment and the second death. 
That all men irrespective of formed character for evil here, become 
the delighted and immortal inhabitants of a perpetual elysium. 
That broad is the way and wide is the gate that leadeth unto life 
eternal, and that none can help to find it. 

" Or again : and now as touching a moral part of social interest. 
Spirits declare that there is no marriage as a natural law, but that 
polygamy or bigamy, are as orderly as the monogamic tie. But, 
if this be not frequently inculcated, what shall we say to that 
broadly put forth declaration of spirits, that the marital tie is the 
result of natural affinity, and that where two are legally conjoined, 
and the wandering inclinations of either rove to another object, the 
new attraction becomes the lawful husband or the lawful wife. 

"Now as a man of honor, I pledge myself, and stand committed 
to the assertion, that, through mediumistic channels, all these things 
are taught as emanating from the spirits ; and worse is taught, if 
possible, to those who penetrate the inner circles of the gloomy 
mysteries, where the old magic is born again."* 

Starting out upon the hypothesis that there is no moral distinc- 
tion between vice and virtue, that Nature is God, and that the 
promptings of the human impulses are his inspirations, they cut 
loose from all restraint and drift into every sensual indulgence, 

* A Sermon on Modern Spiritualism preached in Lcndon, Jan. 15, 1860. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 635 

where, stimulated by the terrible influx of demons, they attempt to 
satiate their lust by a promiscuous commerce, their hatred of 
truth by invectives against the Christian religion, and their malig- 
nity by injuring their oponents. Lasciviousness, fornications, 
adulteries, sodomy, slanders, perjuries, thefts, suicides and murders, 
make up the chief catalogue of their crimes. In morality they are 
devils, in rationality idiots, and fully maintain the character of their 
Arch Fiend progenitor. These statements may seem exaggerated, 
harsh and severe, to those who are less acquainted with the facts ; 
but what are we to expect from men and women of such senti- 
ments ? Do I falsify their position ? nay, but let them speak for 
themselves, not as an individual, but as an associated body. I 
quote from the Banner of Light, Boston, Oct. 29, 1859 : 

"Question.— Are the manifestations of human life that we call evil, or sinful 
a necessity of the conditions of the soul's progress ? 

"Dr. Child: Without any feeling of antagonism to views that may seem op- 
posed to the affirmative of this question, from the deepest and most sincere con- 
victions of my soul, I answer to the question, that what Ave call sin and evil in 
human actions is a necessity, and, being a necessity, it is lawful and right. This 
view of the question is in harmony with all evil ; it sees all that is wrong and re- 
pulsive to the soul's higher longings, as being the effect of a means in the ordering 
of Divine Wisdom, for the production of the greatest possible good for humanity. 
It sees darkness as necessary as light, in the spiritual as well as in the physical 
world ; it sees the lightning's glare as necessary as the milder, softer sunlight ; the 
driving storm as necessary as the gentler dews. It recognizes the hand of God in 
the serpent's venom, as much as in the fragrance of the pure water-lily ; in the 
crude granite, as full and perfect as in the existence of angel-life. It sees God in 
all his works ever manifest, replete in power and wisdom. It sees all the mani- 
festations of life, both good and bad, as being the immediate effect of nature's laws, 
which laws are the laws of God — laws that were never broken, and never can be ; 
laws, every jot and tittle of which, as Christ has said, must be fulfilled. It recog- 
nizes the latent germ of crime as meaning and potent as crime developed ; and the 
latent germ of goodness as powerful and weighty as goodness well developed. It 
recognizes the elements of good and evil, in a low condition of ? uman progress, 
as being inseparably blended, necessary and inevitable. It sees the manifestation 
of every human soul, whether good or bad, as being the necessary result of a cer- 
tain condition, in which condition is to be found a natural cause that produced the 
good or bad action. Judas, the traitor, was as faithful to the condition of his being 
as was St. John, the divine — each performed the mission assigned to each, lawfully 
and truly. Behind the holy deeds of Fenelon there existed natural causes that pro- 
duced them ; he could not help the manifestations of good. Behind the dark 
deeds of King Herod, the enemy of Christ, there existed natural causes that pro. 
duced the wicked deeds of his life ; he could not help them. In Fenelon there is 
no merit ; in Herod there is no demerit. God created both, and the laws of God 
governed both, one no less than the other; each were true to the conditions of the 
life they lived ; there were causes existing in each, for the deeds which each com- 
mitted, which causes are in nature, and are God's causes. So there are no laudations 
for Fenelon, and no condemnations for Herod ; there is no comparison to be made 



636 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

between the two ; no judgment to be instituted. Fenelon is a child of God : Herod 
is the same — each heirs of eternal life and the blessings of God, that await them 
in the coming future. Fenelon is no nearer God than Herod is, for God is every- 
where, and his laws govern everywhere. 

" That woman of shame and suffering that met Christ at Jacob's well, was just 
as near God before she preached Christ as she was after. The sufferings conse- 
quent upon her sins had prepared her soul to blossom in humility, and send forth 
the fragrance of her soul in the love of Christ to humanity. She was the first 
preacher of the Gospel of Christ, and she was a prostitute. The cup of bitterness • 
is the fruit of sin, and we must drink it as Christ did; we cannot keep it from our 
lips ; it is our Father's will that we should drink it, and our Christ's example ; it 
is for our good ; it is our passport to heaven. So the affirmative accepts every 
opinion and every creed, and not only opinions and creeds, but every deed of good- 
ness and every deed of evil, as being necessary and right, that ever existed in the 
great family of humanity. The affirmative involves the elements of infinite for- 
giveness, of humility, which holds the soul on a dead level of a human brother- 
hood ; of perfect faith in God and glimpses of the dawning of that day, where ' the 
wilderness and the solitary places shall be glad ; the desert shall rejoice and blos- 
som as the rose, and all shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God.' 
' The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err in the way of holiness.' All the 
ways of life are ways of holiness, whether we call them good or evil, for God is 
holy, and God is in them all. All life is true life, whether we call it good or bad — 
for God is in all life — and God is truth. All the manifestations of human life, both 
good and evil as we say, are necessary, for God has created nothing that is unne- 
cessary. 

" Mr. Newton said — I shall not deny that evils and sins of the descriptions men- 
tioned are for the most part necessary, in the constitution of things, to growth or 
progress. Plainly, there can be no progress unless there is a lower as well as 
a higher. There can be no attaining to perfection, unless there is imperfection to 
begin with. All such evils are merely lesser goods. Nor, again, do I deny, that the 
road through hell — even the 'lowest hell' — may lead eventually to heaven — nor 
that those who travel that way, and reach the celestial city at last, through crimes 
and miseries and agonies untold, will not have a larger capacity for happiness, and 
for usefulness in saving others, than the merely innocent, the passively good, 
whose robes were never stained even by contact with the vile. None of these posi- 
tions shall I deny, for I honestly believe them true. 

" H. F. Gardner — Dr. Child has got more philosophy in his ideas of good and 
evil than most people ever thought of. The world ought to know and feel the ne. 
cessity, the blessing of sin. Jesus and Judas both had the experience they needed, 
and neither were made better or worse by the simple acts they were compelled to 
do by their innate condition. 

"Mr. Wilson, of New York. I am with my friend, Dr. Child, for his views 
come nearest t© the standard of true Christianity of any I ever heard ; they are but 
a reiteration of the philosophy taught eighteen hundred years ago. Moral distinc- 
tions I cannot recognize as an essential quality of the soul. 

" Miss Lizzie Doten, entranced. Evil is evil only by comparison — a lower con- 
dition than ours is evil to us, and our condition is evil to a higher condition. It is 
necessary for the tree that it should begin its growth at the root. The roots grow 
in the ground, in the darkness of the earth, the trunk and branches grow up toward 
heaven. The roots may be compared to evil, the trunk and top to good ; the rami- 
fications of each are similar, both are good, both are necessary. So it is of the 
soul's growth — every degree is necessary. The nearer we come to God the purer 
grows the soul. Why does he (pointing to Dr. Child,) present such views'? It is 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 637 

because the philanthrophy of his large heart wants to take all humanity to heaven 
— the wicked and the suffering, as well as the good and the happy. He would 
take even the devil himself to heaven, and it may be that the devil will have a 
seat in heaven, that God will say — 

' Take, Lucifer, thy place. This day art thou 
Redeemed to archangelic state.' 

The views of Dr. Child are broad and comprehensive ; he goes for generals. His 
views are right, his position is true. In this general view the wisdom of Provi- 
dence is seen in its perfection ; there is no evil, no sin ; but when you come to mi- 
nutiae, with limited perception you see evil. God produced everything good at 
first, and God has never changed his mind — everything is good still. 

To these views, horrid as they are, there was not heard a dis- 
senting voice in that whole congregation. What restraint can there 
be upon such men from the commission of any crime, however 
great, but a fear of the arm of the civil law ? Under such views, 
where is the barrier to vice and incentive to virtue? No punish- 
ment for crime, but a brighter crown in the kingdom of heaven ; 
no inducements to a holy life, but a retarding of the soul's 
perfection. 

" Every ill of life is a stepping-stone to progress. Every curse escaping the lips 
of the profane one is a blessing to him ; it is a casting off of the evil in the spirit, 
sparks from a fire, which will purify the spirit."* 

According to the theology of these men, Booth is a brighter angel 
than Lincoln, Judas than Christ. Judas and Booth " have jour- 
neyed through the lowest hell" of crime, and Mr. Newton would 
persuade us to believe that they now have a larger capacity for 
happiness than their innocent victims. Why then is " evil a lesser 
good " if it ultimately leads to a greater bliss ? " All the ways of 
life," says one, " are ways of holiness, whether we call them good 
or evil." " The world ought to know and feel," says another, 
" the blessings of sin." u Moral distinctions I cannot recognize as 
an essential quality of the soul," says the third. u These views 
are right, there is no evil, no sin," say the spirits, and even Luci- 
fer shall attain to an archangelic state. Did I not say truthfully 
that as to rationality they are idiots ? 

And here let it be asked, what pledge can such men give of 
their obedience and fidelity to government as acknowledging no 
sanctity in an oath, which is inseparably connected with a belief of 
rewards and punishments. This void of faith, void of conscience, 
void of honor, (for what is honor without conscience,) what have 
they left for the support of the slenderest virtue ? What have 
they to gain the smallest confidence from man ? Can any firm 

* Banner of Light, April 28, 1860. 

81 



638 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

bond of compact or friendship find place in that heart, which feels 
that there is no sin, or that it shall ultimately be rewarded in an- 
other life for its perfidy here ? One would be willing to believe, 
from tenderness to human nature, and also from charity, that the 
number of those who are in this horrible degree of infidelity and 
perversity of life is but small. 

Now, upon what basis can an oath be administered to them ? If 
they swear by their honor they repudiate all distinction between 
right and wrong, and have no moral principle by which their oath 
is entitled to the least credence. If they swear by the Bible they 
believe it to be an imposition, and without sanctity. If they swear 
by God, they do not believe in His existence, and their oath is but 
a farce, and without moral force. Practically, there is no legal 
penalty against perjury ; morally, these men and women believe 
falsehood to be equally as meritorious as truth. Life, reputation, 
and property, are everywhere at stake before them. The ques- 
tion for the public to consider is, is there no remedy ? Is it pol- 
itic to admit before any tribunal, an oath, without a moral basis ? If so, 
in what can rest the safety of society ? That they are utterly reck- 
less of truth while under oath, as well as at other times, I do knoiv, 
not barely in one instance, but in many. Such is their love of 
baseness, that they are far more inclined to forsw r ear themselves 
than to speak the truth ; and I stand pledged, as a man of honor, 
to fully demonstrate what I say. The matter is thus open for the 
consideration of the State, and it is a question which demands its 
attention. 

Again : how is it possible for any one to have any accurate con- 
ception of right and wrong without some standard of rectitude ? 
We cannot decide by our impulses, for the impulses of one indi- 
vidual may wholly differ from those of another, and of the same 
individual at different periods of time ; and the judgment is always 
more or less w r arped by them, so that it in its turn, becomes dis- 
qualified for any accurate decision. Hence we are necessitated to 
look to a standard above the individual ; one not subject to the ca- 
prices of the human will, and this standard is the Divine Will. 
But the Spiritualist repudiates any other divinity than nature, of 
which the human will is a part and thence assumes that the human 
impulses are its inspirations by which they are to be governed. 

" I do not think/' says Dr. Lewis, " that there is any such thing as a personal 
God. All nature is divine ; God is every where and in everything, in the organi- 
zation of every being/'* 

* Banner of Light, May 6th, 1860. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 639 

" Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God," say the spirits. " Who is% God ? Is 
lie the God of the multitude 1 No ! Therefore you are not called upon to worship 
the God of the multitude. The God of Nations is not your God. We cannot under- 
stand these words as mortals understand them generally. Minds schooled in old the- 
ology have a poor understanding of the Christian religion, the true religion, and things 
pertaining to the worship of God. That which you cannot understand or compre- 
hend is not God to you. No God that is worshipped by the multitude, is the God 
of truth. The God living in the human soul is the only God to be recognized and 
worshipped. The God of one individual may prompt to certain acts, certain devel- 
opments ; the God of another may prompt to a different development. If you look 
at the God of another you do ill ; if you look within at your own God, you do well. 
In order to serve the one God in spirit, we must in no case go out of ourselves for 
judgment. What is right to me as a spirit is wholly wrong to you as a mortal. 
<-Vhat my God sanctions, yours disapproves of. There are as many Gods as there 
are individuals, and yet they are one, because they are all embodied in truth, and 
are all bound upward and onward. Each individual is given a God of his own." 

I believe this to be nearly or quite the universal sentiment of 
this body of people. The belief that there is no distinction to be 
made between vice and virtue, is the legitimate correlative of a 
belief in the non-existence of a Supreme Being. No person could 
possibly disbelieve in one and accept of the other ; and as a legitimate 
sequence, if there is no Supreme Being there can be no Divine 
Revelations. Mr. A. J. Davis, the chief star among this galaxy of 
people, says : 

" Every enlightened person knows that the Bible is wrong in scores of things. 
Its geology is wrong, its chronology is wrong, its astronomy is wrong; it is Avrong 
in many prophecies ; and there are doctrines, precepts, and practices unfit for the 
child to learn or the man to follow."* * * * " Evil, so-called, is not a transgression 
of any Law, either physical or moral, but evil and sin arise from internal conditions 
and from external circumstances over which individuals have no absolute control."* 

" The truth is, that in worshiping the Spiritualisms of old times, the Bible, we 
choose to remain in the very bottomless pit of darkness and superstition, the mere 
sport of priestcraft, and our own infantile imbecilities. Miserable bipeds ! rend 
your swaddling clothes, and throw away your crutches. Bow not down to Levit- 
ical tomfoolery of ceremonial churches, nor to Bible, nor to priests, but only what 
the most High reveals unto you apart from priestcraft and superstition."f 

Mr. S. J. Finney, a lecturer on Spiritualism, published a book 
entitled " The Bible, is it of Divine origin ? " I make the follow- 
ing extract from the author's introduction : 

"I have written to destroy the doctrine that the 'Bible ' is our master, — greater 
than the God in matter and in man ; but not to destroy the idea that it may be a 
help when we use it, instead of being used by it. When it is taken for divine au- 
thority, in sum total, it imposes upon us the task of sustaining tyranny in church 
and state, — of making slavery perpetual, — of sustaining conjugal despotism, — of 
imposing unnatural restraints upon our minds, — of denying the truths of science, 
and of distrusting reason, conscience, and intuition. But, left to take it for what 
it can prove itself to be worth, we can read in it the revelations of the human 

* Penetralia, p. 135, 251. t Banner of Light, March 24th, 1860. 



640 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

mind in all stages of progress, from the most abject barbarism to the divinest mo- 
ments of being. When we take the ' Bible ' as an authority, we become confound- 
ed with its contradictions, disgusted with its assumptions, and indignant at its 
blasphemous representations of God and divine things." 

Professedly the spirit of St. Paul writes through Mr. Hoar as 
medium, as follows : 

" The Bible when first written was nothing more than a book written through 
mediums, as I am now writing through my medium. Its contents were not com- 
posed of all the books that are in it at present. Some of the Old Testament was 
written by men who had no more power than I had to preach the Gospel before my 
conversion."* 

" The record tells you that Jesus was the son of Mary, and the especial son of the 
Holy Ghost. But this is not so; Jesus Christ was the legitimate son of Caiaphas, 
the high priest. Mary was his wife ; yea, his wife, she being privately married to 
him ; for as death was the penalty of such disobedience to law, thus the high priest 
could not marry, or if he did, was obliged to keep it private, fearing higher 
forces than his own — still higher powers. Now Mary was a medium ; Caiaphas 
was a medium, and from the two came Jesus, a perfect form, an organism well fitted 
to receive and to give intelligence, with might and glory from God — yea, from 
God, that Spirit of Wisdom that existeth in Heaven, Earth and Hell."t 

Volumes of such infidel twaddle might be selected from these 
publications, but I have only made such brief extracts as are neces- 
sary to give the reader some idea of the morals of this people. 

There is nothing to which they are more unrelentingly hostile 
than to the institution of marriage. Knowing, as demons do, that 
the conjugal principle is the boundary between the heavens and the 
hells, and that its subversion, more effectually than any other, opens a 
highway to every moral disorder, with an unanimity of action and 
a desperation of effort, all infernous, as a combined host, surges 
against this institution. Nor can they combine in anything by 
which they can so effectually accomplish their wicked desires. 
Strike down the Christian marriage and hell has gained a complete 
victory over humanity, Satan's boundaries become extended be- 
yond the River of Life, so that he is no longer annoyed with any 
divine intrusion, and he reigns a victorious King over the desolate 
waste of the once fruitful fields of Paradise. 

Mr. A. J. Davis starts out upon the hypothesis, that self-love is 
properly the central and governing principle of the human consti- 
tution ; hence, that conjugal "Fidelity is the integrity of your soul 
to itself — obedience to the Angel of God within — to your best and 
highest attraction,"* by which we are to understand that marriage 
has no binding force beyond the wandering inclinations of the in- 

* Spirit Eapping Unfolded, p. 91—2. t Banner of Light, Dec. 3d, 1859. J Pen- 
etralia, p. 53. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 641 

dividual, and that either party may change their relations as often 
as their lustful impulses may indicate. I am acquainted enough 
with Mr. Davis, to know that he means by the " best and highest 
attraction " the strongest impulse, and that this annuls any previ- 
ously existing marriage by the more attractive forces of the new re- 
lation, and that this, in its turn, may become displaced by another, 
and so on, as often as either party may become attracted to some 
new affinity. In short, it is a complete abrogation of the mar- 
riage institution, leaving the parties to follow, without restraint, 
any new affinity they may happen to meet ; for he further adds : 

" No promise, no written or legalized agreement, can unite that which is inter- 
nally and eternally joined ; nor can these solemnities unite that which is internally 
and eternally separated. If two are legally married, and if this outward expression 
of unity has no other primary cause than the fascinations of features, the advantage of 
position or wealth, or the accident of circumstance, then is the female unconsciously 
living with another spirit's companion ; and so, also, is the male living in perpi^tual 
violation of the laws of conjugal association." * * "In the world, everywhere, are 
visihie these superficial ephemeral marriages — marriages ! did I say ? No, not 
marriages, hut worldly legalized attachments — legalized adulteries and bigamies, 
which not only distract and deform, hut arrest the development of beauty and hap- 
piness in the thus enslaved soul."* 

In the above paragraph we have the pernicious doctrine of 
affinity, a doctrine which is as corrupting to the public morals as it 
is false in theory. By its influence thousands of familiea have 
been broken up, and thousands of otherwise respectable women 
have been degraded to harlots. I know of no one delusion that 
has done such a vast amount of mischief. It first deceives the 
judgment and then entices to an infidelity of the marriage bed, but 
soon tiring of the new affinity, they seek still others, and in being 
thus repeatedly transferred from one to another, they soon cease 
to respect the chastity of their own person. Nor is this the worst 
or greatest evil, — it seems to be but the introduction to a still 
more degraded condition. Discarding the only standard of recti- 
tude and accepting of the promptings of the impulses as the tC in- 
spiring god within," the monogamic tie, even as a transient 
affinity, speedily gives place to a promiscuous commerce. In the 
ordinary offences against chastity, there is a war in the individual 
between the impulses and the sentiments, so that whilst they are 
seduced by the passions, they recognize the wrong and deplore it ; 
in which case the evil does not inhere but only adheres to the indi- 
vidual ; whereas no sooner is it accepted as a moral and religious 

* Great Harmonia, 2 vol., p. 203, 4. 



642 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

right, than it becomes a part of the inmost life and prostitutes the 
soul as well as the body to this most corrupting of all vices. 

Evil spirits with which every unregenerated person is infested, 
no longer meeting with any moral resistance, gains complete control 
over their now willing slave whose body they use, not only to gratify 
their lust, but as a means of enacting any or every other scene of 
wickedness. They now have an avenue through which they can 
impose upon those whom they cannot obsess. False .names are 
assumed and false doctrines inculcated. The subject becomes great 
in his or her mediatorial powers, and capable of performing the 
most astounding feats of magic, oris mentally stimulated into ver- 
bose and sophistical harangues ; and they become proud of what 
should be their greatest shame. 

Whenever spirits can gain control of the imagination, they can 
mirror such mock pictures of heavenly scenes as would be likely 
to deceive any one who is not acquainted with their infernal arts. 
They can personate any character, even the Lord himself; they 
can inculcate any doctrines, either .good or bad ; they can give 
such representations of others as to defy our ability to detect the 
imposition ; they can magnetize their human victims into any opin- 
ions or into any emotional state, either of love or hate, — in short, 
they can sway the human mind as they please. 

With such power over those who yield to their seductive influ- 
ence, it is easy to induce in them a feeling of antagonism and hatred 
towards one and a strong affinity for another. But the new at- 
traction, founded upon no moral basis, soon degenerates into bitter 
animosities and awful maledictions, and soon gives place to another, 
and this to still another, and so on, each commencing in lust, and 
ending in hatred. Experience has demonstrated, that so far from 
the new affinity being more harmonious, it is usually shorter in 
duration and more invective in spirit. This vice, like all others, is 
augmented by withdrawing those restraints necessary to keep it in 
check. 

John M. Spear, at a lecture in Utica, N. Y., delivers him- 
self of the following anathema : 

" Cursed be the marriage institution ; cursed be the relation of husband and 
wife ; cursed be all who would sustain legal marriage. What if there are a few 
tears shed, or a few hearts broken, they only go to build up a great principle, and 
all great truths have their martyrs." 

The Spiritual Age, says : 

" The truth is, that the existing marriage institution, or at least the prevalent 
marriage customs, are fearfully corrupt and false to man's higher nature. Where 
true marriage exists, alienation, desertion and crime are impossible." 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 643 

In this view of the subject, all who in any way prove infidel to 
their marriage vows are perfectly justifiable, as the wrong itself be- 
comes positive evidence that the parties are not "truly married," 
consequently under no obligation to each other. In other words, 
this is a sophistry which proves to their minds that social corrup- 
tion and conjugal infidelity are no wrong, but a fidelity to their 
"highest and best attraction." 

" Our spirit friends say, all purely natural passions must have ample scope to 
work themselves out in their true order. The hoops which have hound the past 
must be burst, and narrow conventionalism must be disregarded ; legalism, so far 
as it tetters the body or highest aspirations of the mind, must be trampled under 
foot, and the broadest freedom must take its place." 

I have before abundantly shown from their own statements that 
thev recoo-uize no distinction between ojood and evil, and here we 
have the counterpart of that sentiment, in its application to the 
marital relation. It would be difficult to conceive of a broader 
basis of social degradation than is here set forth. The Christian 
marriage is held in open contempt, and should be trampled under 
foot, and that too by the directing spirits whom they recognize as 
their instructors and guides. 

Again : a correspondent of the Spiritual Telegraph, in referring 

to an unmarried woman who had recently become a mother, writes 

as follows : 

" It is reserved for this our day, under the inspiration of the Spirit world, for a 
quiet, equable, retiring woman to rise up in the dignity of her womanhood and 
declare in the face of her oppressors and a scowling world, I will be free ! God 
helping me, though I stand alone, penniless, friendless, homeless, forsaken of all — 
I will exercise that dearest of all rights, the holiest and most sacred of all Heaven's 
gifts — the right of maternity — in the way which tome seemeth right ; and no 
man, nor set of men, no church, no State, shall withhold from me the realization 
of that purest of all aspirations inherent in every true woman, the right to re- 
beget myself when, and by whom, and under such circumstances, as to me seem 
fit and best." 

Others have freely offered their own daughters to become the 
mistresses of men, averring that marriage should not precede, but 
follow, that intimate relation belonging to husband and wife ; that 
after they have lived together sufficiently long to ascertain whether 
each can fully respond to all the desires of the other, is then the 
proper time to decide on marriage. 

These quotations might be multiplied to any extent, but this 
must suffice as it is sufficient to show the peculiarity of their doc- 
trines and practices upon this subject. 

From what has already been said, it is abundantly evident that 
the too leading fundamental doctrines of the Spiritualists, are : 



644 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

first, the divinity of the individual, that God is a subjective rather 
than an objective existence ; second, that out of this divinity grows 
the sovereignty of the individual, which culminates in the congres- 
sional promiscuity of the sexes. Nor can it be otherwise ; for, as 
this is the strongest instinct, no sooner does an individual renounce 
all religious restraints, by a rejection of the Divine authority, and 
exalt the impulses into an inspiration of the divinity within, than 
all impediments to its gratification are removed, and he is left to 
seek his pleasure regardless of any moral consideration. Hence 
Mr. Davis says : 

" A practical age," — by which he evidently means an age without religious re- 
straint — "will bring a new conception of Deity and a new conception of man. 
The laws written upon man's inmost nature are more utilitarian than the ten com- 
mandments. These are the laws of Deity. Reverence for the principles of hu- 
man nature is more utilitarian than adhesion to the enactments of institutions. 
Yes : we are on the threshold of an era when a new God is to be introduced to 
mankind."* 

Five pages further on in the same volmue, he adds : 

" All true liberty and happiness are predicated upon the two-fold principle of In- 
dividual sovereignty and Collective reciprocity ; therefore, that all religious sys- 
tems and all forms of government, opposed to the practical enjoyment of such self- 
sovereignty as the basis, are essentially barbarous and vitally antagonistic to the 
real needs of the men and women of the nineteenth century. " 

The ground upon which this platform is erected is as broad as 
can possibly be desired — there is no accountability to society, none 
to God. The only limit of restraint is that of coercing others, 
so that whatever abominations any given n amber of individuals 
may see fit to practice among themselves, they have a right to be 
exempt from the penalties of any social or divine regulations. 

But what are the facts of the workings of this doctrine of the 
sovereignty of the individual ? Are they more lenient and char- 
itable to one another ? or are they willing to allow each to seek 
their own happiness unmolested, in any way they desire ? Far 
from it, for it is everywhere notorious, that though they are in the 
practice of all that is vile themselves, practices of which they con- 
fessedly approve, there is no class that is half so censorious and 
slanderous of others. Each scandalizes the other for the things 
they practice themselves and openly justify. Each resorts to every 
conceivable means to degrade others and to render their lives mis- 
erable, totally regardless of either mercy or truth. A more spe- 
cious refutation of their own theory could not be found than even 
a brief observation of their conduct toward others. But this 

* Penetralia, p. 243. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 645 

much can be truthfully said, that the more vile any one becomes 
among them, or outside of their ranks, the less condemnation he 
or she receives at their hands. It is the better qualities to which 
they are hostile, not the worst, though they allege the worst as the 
means of degradation and torture. " Their throat is an open 
sepulchre : with their tongues they use deceit ; the poison of asps 
is under their lips ; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness ; 
their feet are swift to shed blood ; destruction and misery are in 
their ways : and the way of peace they have not known ; there is 
no fear of God before their eyes."* Men and women who are 
lost to all shame, and of whom it is well known that they have 
repeatedly been guilty, not merely of prostitutional and other 
vicious habits, but of such crimes as would have justly incarcerated 
them in the penitentiary, are put forward as the leading men and 
women among them. At all their gatherings we find them elected 
as chairmen of their meetings, appointed committees, and most 
lauded speakers. The more intensely wicked they become, as they 
are thus freed from the conventionalisms of the age, the better 
qualified they are deemed to be for these positions. And it is a 
fact which they have confessedly learned by experience, that the 
more their mediums give themselves up to the indulgence ot every 
lustful desire, the more completely are they controlled by their famil- 
iar spirits, and the more fluent, sophistical and interesting they 
become to their hearers. 

Stvmmary . 

There are four hundred public mediums and spiritual lecturers 
in the Northern section of the United States. Not less than three 
hundred of these have been married ; two hundred of which have 
been legally divorced in consequence of their own pernicious con- 
duct ; all of whom, so far as I have been able to learn, are living 
in promiscuous commerce. Those who continue to cohabit as hus- 
band and wife, it is usually with the tacit or verbal understanding, 
that they are to have their affinity with whom there shall be no re- 
straint of association. This latter condition prevails more generally 
where both parties are mediums. Such as have not been married, 
are living in the exercise of the broadest freedom with both mar- 
ried and single. I have not been able to learn of more than two 
exceptions to this horrid state of things, and of these I have too 
little knowledge of the facts to justify me in expressing any opinion, 
in their favor. 
* Romans 3 : 13—18. 



646 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

It is clearly evident that Mediumship as now understood as the 
avenue of phenomenal and familiar commerce between the spiritual 
and the natural world, is synonymous with all that is infidel to the 
Christian religion ; with all that is vile ; with all that is false and 
inhuman ; with all that is degrading to mankind. There is noth- 
ing beyond it in the depths of human depravity, — in its fullest 
sense it is hell ultimating its shameless and horrid abominations 
upon earth. And there can be no reasonable doubt that mediums 
in the sense here used, are constitutionally possessed of an under- 
lying strata of wickedness, — though it may not have been brought 
to the surface to be seen by others, or even into the consciousness 
of the individual, — horrid to contemplate. It is this innate 
depravity more than any physical condition, that brings them into 
immediate relations with the hells and gives devils power over 
them. With such innate tendencies it is not remarkable that they 
so readily accept of such pernicious teachings and practices. Cor- 
rupt as society is, it is made far more so by these newly opened 
sewers of perdition. 

Profane and intemperate men, shameless and boastful libertines, 
adulterers and adulteresses, publicly known to be such, are upheld 
and encouraged by the Spiritualists over all the country. Women, 
who have abandoned their husbands, and are living in open harlot- 
ry, murder their own embryo offsprings, and rise from their guilty 
couches and stand before large audiences as the pretended mouth- 
piece of angels. From the commencement they have acknow- 
ledged in their weekly journals that moral character is no test of 
qualification as a preacher of these new doctrines. Husbands in- 
vite men to occupy the beds of their wives, and wives solicit of 
other women indulgences for their husbands. God is irreverently 
called " the Old Man who seduced Mary, and begat Christ, the bas- 
tard.'' Christ was a very well-meaning, but ignorant Jewish cit- 
izen, who manifested His goodness of heart in forgiving the adul- 
teress woman, but exposed His ignorance of human needs when he 
requested her to sin no more. The Apostles were very good medi- 
ums, but too much biased by the ignorance and superstitions of their 
cotemporaries. The Bible, which means " excellent soft bark," 
will do for an imbecile and unenlightened people ; but is super- 
seded by the Spiritual Philosophy. Self-love is the throne of the 
god within, and should be obeyed. Marriage is universal, know- 
ing no limits but desire, and as an institution, is without the least 
moral binding force, and should be adhered to only by such as are 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 647 

willing to be slaves, as the law of affinity transcends all social regu- 
lations. The right to choose a different father for each and every 
offspring is inherent in every true woman. The relation of hus- 
band and wife should precede marriage as a preliminary means of 
judging of their fitness for each other. All lustful desires should be 
ultimated, as this becomes the means of their purification. Vice, 
in its every form, is equally as meritorious as virtue, so that there 
is no moral distinction between good and evil — sin an impossible 
chimera. Chastity, a name with no other meaning than bondage 
to barbarous institutions. Freedom, in the moral will, is but an 
imposition upon human credulity. Blaspheming God is a purify- 
ing process to the soul. Murder both hurries the victim to heaven 
and blesses the murderer. And life, with all its varied scenes, is 
but a prelude to that drama to be played beyond the valley and 
shadow of death, where the soul shall rise triumphant in its own 
strength, purified of its evils—if such they be — by their exhaustion.* 
Fornications, adultery, desertions, bigamy, sodomy, frauds, rob- 
beries, falsehoods, slanders, perjuries, infanticide, suicide and mur- 
ders are some of the chief fruits of this forbidden commerce. They 
constantly cry progress, but which is only in the direction of 
iniquity. They tend to subvert all human dignity and public 
morals, and to destroy all that the better portion of the world has 
ever held most dear and cherished most sacredly, — a now unmasked 
and hideous monster, without heart, without intellect, without con- 
science, without decency, but all passion and degradation. It 
strips the soul of every noble quality and renders it barren of every 
conjunctive principle between it and its God, and thus leaves it 
without chart, compass or rudder, to drift into the whirlpool of the 
damned, where, having sown to the wind it reaps the whirlwind. 
" For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections ; for even 
their women did change the natural use into that which is against 
nature ; and likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the 
women, burned in their lust one towards another ; men with men 
working that which is unseemly (sodomy) and receiving in them- 
selves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even 
as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave 
them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not 
convenient ; being filled with unrighteousness, fornication, wick- 
edness, covetousness, maliciousness ; full of envy, murder, debate, 

* I have purposely woven in this category so as to fairly represent the different 
views of this people. 



648 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

deceit, malignity ; whisperings, backbitings, hatred of God, despite- 
ful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 
without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affec- 
tion, implacable, unmerciful."* It would be impossible to give a 
more summary and definite description of this vile people than the 
apostle has here enumerated in this catalogue of Gentile sins. 

Jude also calls attention to a like class of persons who existed in 
his day : " For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were 
before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning 
the grace of our God into laseiviousness, and denying the only 
Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. * * * Even as Sodom and 
Gomorrah and the cities about them, in like manner giving them- 
selves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set 
forth, as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. 
Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise domin- 
ion, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when 
contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, 
durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, the 
Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those things which 
they know not ; but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in 
those things they corrupt themselves. These are spots in your 
feasts of charity, when they feast, with you, feeding themselves 
without fear ; clouds they are without water ; carried about of 
winds ; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead 
plucked up by the roots ; raging waves of the sea, foaming out 
their own shame ; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the black- 
ness of darkness forever. * * * These are murmurers, complainers 
walking after their own lust ; and their mouth speaking great swell- 
ing words, having men's persons in admiration because of advan- 
tage. But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken 
before of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ : how that they 
told you there should be mockers in the last times who should 
walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate 
themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.'' 

The vicious usually deprecate vice even in themselves ; but these 
sink so far below ordinary criminals that they approve of what 
the most degraded condemn — the inner as well as the outer plane 
is prostituted to demon service. And sad to relate I have never 
known in a single instance of the reformation of any one who has 
fully imbibed these horrid doctrines. To destroy in the human 
* Eomans 1 : 26-31. 



SPIRITUALISM: ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. 649 

mind all distinction between vice and virtue, is to deprive the in- 
dividual of every condition of a relation to a moral life, and they 
are given over to hardness of heart and are left to glory in their 
own shame. 

Concl u s i o n . 

I would not have introduced these remarks had I not have felt 
that they were required at my hand. Circumstances have con- 
spired to render me more familiar with the various phenomena 
here under consideration than almost any other one who would be 
likely to expose their horrors. Void of the least principle, the Spir- 
itualists have usually resorted to such a horrid system of slandering 
all who attempt to expose their wickedness, that those who are 
acquainted with the facts feel it to be imprudent to make any public 
allusion to them. When they are better understood, their state- 
ments will have less effect, — in fact, their denunciations should 
be regarded as a compliment. 

But I write not to affect those who are already in this delusion 
and whirlpool of excitement, but that the well-disposed may not 
be enticed into the same wickedness. So insidious are the work- 
ings of Evil Spirits, and so subtle is the force ejected by them 
through their mediums, that they bewilder the senses and spell-bind 
the reason ; and thousands of well-meaning but unfortunate indi- 
viduals, have been hurried in a helpless and hapless confusion, into 
the most vicious conduct, even before they were aware of their 
danger. It is an influence which, as St. James says, "creeps in 
unawares," and strips the individual of his or her integrity while 
the soul is drugged with a moral poison, so that they are speedily 
led to approve of those vicious habits which they previously ab- 
horred. 

I do not wish to be understood to say that those who have 
embraced the Spiritualist doctrines were originally worse than 
others ; on the contrary, many high-toned persons who previously 
sought to maintain the right, have become its victims by placing 
themselves in a negative relation to Evil Spirits, and absorbing into 
their own constitutions such elements as have, to a greater or less 
degree, destroyed their moral perceptions and eclipsed their view 
of God. Usually, their terrible wickedness is not because they 
are constitutionally w T orse than others, but because they have 
unwittingly allowed themselves to be drugged with the elements 
of the lower world, and are made to see vice as virtue and evil as 



650 THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 

good. They have heedlessly entered into an investigation of a 
subject, the nature and influence of which, they did not under- 
stand, and have paid the forfeiture by a loss of their own moral 
consciousness. 

But they have demonstrated what the Church should have 
accepted without such a fearful sacrifice of morals and loss of soul, 
viz. : the intimate relation between the Natural and the Spiritual 
worlds. There is much just ground to apprehend that God will 
require their blood at the hands of the Church, for what right had 
she to ignore such an evident Biblical truth as the possibility of a 
commerce " with familiar spirits," and thus to leave the way open 
for them to impose upon mankind. Her watchmen should have 
been the first to have investigated this subject, and have been pre- 
pared to understandingly protect the public from its baneful 
influence. If I have shown the evils of this system, it is that I 
may do what the Church should have done before me — that I 
may be the means of saving others from becoming the dupes of 
devils and being insidiously drawn into the worst of all existing 
evils. Bad as it is, it appears to have been Providentially permit- 
ted in order to reestablish in the public mind the existence of an 
Intermediate State — a state most intimately allied to our world. 
Whatever motive these people may attribute to me or whatever 
slanders they may malignantly herald to destroy the influence of 
these statements, as they have hitherto done, the reader may be 
assured that my sole object in the matter is to save others from the 
evils of this system. The events I leave in the hands of Him to 
whose Providence these pages owe their existence. 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 



A. 

Abercrombie, Dr. on Dreaming 546 

Adultery, its Effects 67 

" " its Effects upon Man 400 

" its Effects upon Woman. .404 

" its Physical Effects upon 

Woman 407 

Adulteration of the Conjugal Prin- 
ciple 349 

Albany Legislature , 214 

Alimentiveness, its Locality and Piv- 
otal Position 336 

Amalgamation of Elacks with the 

Whites, its Effects 409 

Arminius James 115 

Ark of the Covenant 143 

" its Power and 

Influence 144 

Atmosphere, its Electricity 276 

Attractive Eorces of the Sexes ...... 340 

Attributes of God are not Person- 
alities 31 

B. 

Bible, its Power in Heaven. ....... .157 

" the Consequence of Reject- 
ing it 164 

" its Fullness and Power 156 

" it would be a Smiting Force 

without the Letter 157 

Bishop, J. P., quoted 359, 426 

Brown, John 122 

Bushnell, Dr. H. on the Introduction 

of Christ into the World 113 

Bushnell, Dr. H. quoted 155 

Burr, Aaron, his Seductive Power. .183 

Bucer, Martin, quoted 360, 249 

Burton, quoted on Disease 505 

Bushnell, Rev. Dr., on Miracles 510 

C. 

Catholicism 102 

Carrier, J. B., his Cruelty 170 



Calvin, John, his Character 114 

Calvin, John, his Opposition to Ar- 
minius 116 

Cause and Cure of Disease 504 

Cells, Development of 79 

" Primary and Secondary 82 

Cerebrum and Cerebellum . . . 308 

Cerebellum not the Seat of the Sexual 

Instinct 317 

Charter of Toleration 102 

Charity, its Nature and Office 174 

Chinese Five Sacred Books, quoted, 

33, 494 

Chemical 295 

Church and State United 104 

Ciavas, his Life Miraculously Re- 
stored 105 

Circumcision, what it Typified 490 

Clairvoyant State, how Produced. . .566 

Croesus, the King of Lydia. 101 

Constantine 102 

" and Licinius, their Rela- 
tion to Each Other 107 

Corrupt Magistrates 125 

Connate Forces 151 

Contest between the North and the 

South 226 

Corruptness of Jurisprudential Regu- 
lations 241 

Cold, Increase of, as we Ascend from 

the Earth 277 

Cohesion 298 

Comparative Anatomy 323 

Conjugal Sphere 95 

" and Lustful Delights, Con- 
trast of 398 

" Principle, how Formed. ...409 

" Rights, need thereof 433 

Infidelity, Wickedness of. . 436 
Coition, its Effects upon Discordant 

Individuals 441 

Conscience, the Moral Atmosphere . .532 

" how Formed 583 

Correlation of Forces 534 



652 



THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 



Consciousness, Double, Effected by 

Disease 552 

Conclusion 649 

D. 

Darkening Influence of Sin 140 

Dalton's, Dr., Opinion Refuted 327 

Development Theory Considered. . . 77 

Desertion, its Sin 453 

Diagram of the Head 310 

" Illustrating the Forces of 

the Sexes 347 

" of Trees 482 

" " Correlative Forces 485 

Discoveries by the Author 26 

" Newton 27 

Diseases, their Transference 131 

Dick Thomas, quoted 161 

Discrete Degrees in Man 77 

" the Blood 85 

Divorce 426 

Divorces in France 463 

Divinity of the Word 54 

Disease 476 

Diseases have their Origin in the 

Spiritual Plane of Life 495 

Diodorus Siculus 612 

Double Consciousness 552 

" " Effected by 

" " madness 553 

" " a Remarkable 

Case 556 

" "a Case related 

by Monboddo 559 

Dreaming 538 

" Premonitory 564 

Duties of Husband and Wife 386 

D wight, President of Yale College. .452 

E. 

Egg, Electric 289 

Electricity 291 

" and Magnetism, their Re- 
lation to" Each Other 147 

" two kinds 70 

Eve, her First Temptation 422 

Eventuality a Conservative Faculty. 336 

Eve's First Sin 101 

Evil Spirits Flow into Evil Loves. . .496 
Evil Persons Disbelieve in the Word. 50 
Exaltation of the Beast above God. .101 

F. 

Fatalism Overthrown 537 

Faith and Belief 57 

" is as the Quality of the Life. . . 58 

Faraday, Dr., quoted 262 

Financial Thefts 210 

Fowler, O. S., quoted 459 

Fox, George Ill 

France, its Infidelity 164 

" its Reign of Terror 169 

Francourt, Miss, Cure of 510 

French Revolution 165 



G. 

Gall, his Error 319 

Gassner Herr, his Remarkable Cures . 512 

Greeley Horace 228 

Good and Evil. Man's Connection 

with 237 

God and Nature, their relation to 

Each Other 535,579 

Gravitation 297 

Grouping of Organs 334 

H. 

Hall, Dr. Robert, quoted 241 

Hamilton, Sir William, quoted. .323, 542 

on 

Dreaming 546 

Harris, Rev. T. L., quoted 463, 491 

'•' on Spiritualism.. 632 

Hereditary Influence 519 

Heat and Light, their Relation 98 

" 264 

" Old Theories Refuted 267 

" the Amount of, at the Surface of 

the Earth 268 

" Effecled by the Fall of Asteroids. 270 

Helpmeet, its Signification 396 

Hobbs on the Moral Law 195 

Human Spheres, the Commerce of. .100 
Hume 195 

I. 

Imperfection of the Religious Sys- 
tems 23 

Impiety of the Popish Church 110 

Infidelity in France 164 

Instinct 84 

Infinitude of God 89 

Inertia the Condition of Matter 261 

Instinctive Organs Grouped Around 

the Spinal Cord 326 

Ingress of Love and Wisdom 529 

Introduction 13 

J. 

Jealousy, its Effects 355 

Jehovah God 29 

Jesus Christ 112 

Judiciary Proceedings 123 

Jurisprudential Regulations, Corrupt- 
ness, Causes Of j 244 

Judges, their Corruptness 244 

" " Punishment in Hell. . .245 

K. 
Kant, on Dreaming 543 

L. 
Lawsuits, the Injustice and Uncer- 
tainty of 125 

Laws of Health and Disease 476 

Leighton, Bishop 468 

Lebon, Joseph, of France. , 169 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 



653 



Lincoln, Abraham, Death of 230 

Light 263 

" and Heat, their Source 274 

" " " are the Result of the 

Relation of two Orbs 279, 530 

" Quality of the Positive Orb. . .275 

Lights, Northern 288 I 

Licinius 103 

Love, a Conjunctive Principle 498 

Love and Wisdom, their Ingress 529 

Locke, on Dreaming 543 

M. 

Magistrates, their Corruptness 125 

Mayer, J. R 270 

Magnetic Forces, Travel of 332 

Man Considered in his Relation to the 

Interior and Exterior Life 526 

Marriage 248 

" as a Principle 250 

" as an Institution 359 

" the Social Basis of Society . 365 
" by whom it should be Con- 
summated 369 

" in France During the Revo- 
lution 167 

Man's Relation to God 140 

Man Receptive of the Creator 138 

Magnetism 296 

" its Influence upon the 

Physical Constitution 145 

" and Electricity Defined.. 147 
" and its Correlative, Spir- 
itual Excitation 549 

Massacre of Children in France 172 

Matter, the Plane of Use 86 

Macrocosm and Microcosm 93 

Manderville on the Moral Law 195 

Mesmerism Defined 128 

Menstruation, its Office and Use 500 

Men Refuse to Take Faith on Trust. 15 
Memory, a Conservative Faculty . . .541 

Miracles and Magic Defined 509 

" how Produced 547 

" by the Roman Church 105 

Moses, the Shining of his Face. . . .145 
Moral and Physical Disorders, their 

Relation 158 

Moral Law, what it Teaches 200 

" " the Suffering in Another 
"World, Growing Out of its In- 
fringement 225 

Morality, the Basis of a Christian 

Marriage 364 

Mosaic Law on Divorce 446 

Monstrosity, Cases Reported 521 

N. 

Napoleon Bonaparte 384 

" Divorced from 

Josephine 420 

New Jerusalem Magazine quoted 372 

Newton, quoted 261 

83 



Nitrogen, Electro-Positive 276 

Northern Lights 288 

Noble, Rev. S., quoted 357 

Nuptials should be Consummated by 
One Filling a Priestly Office 369 

O. 

Oneness of God and Christ 34 

Oneida County Association 305 

P. 

Paley, Dr., quoted 181 

" on the Moral Law .. 195-197 

" quoted 366 

Pentecost, its Cause and Effect 153 

Philosophy and Religion are Cor- 
relatives - - 17 

Philosophical Age Requires a Phi- 
losophical Religion 15 

Physical Effects of a Mental Change. 508 
Plane of Accountability the Plane of 

Moral Inversion 421 

Protestantism, its Rejection of the 
Doctrine of an Intermediate State. 609 

Prolific Principle 399 

the Medium of Re- 
creation 262 

Polarity of Individuals 307 

Pons Varolii, Seat of the Sexual In- 
stinct 328 

Popish Church, Impiety of 110 

Puritans 120 

Puberty, the Period of Moral Ac- 

countabilitv 501 

Pythagoras on Spirits 612 

Q. 

Quakers Ill 

Quaking of the Earth, Causes of 149 

R. 

Reciprocal Relation of Soul and 

Body 35 

Religious Persecution by Constantine 109 
Rending the Veil of the Temple, 

Causes of 149 

Republican Form of Government, 

the Evils of 231 

Rome, Cause of its Decline 239 

Reverence, the Positive Pole of the 

Sexual Instincts 343 

Reciprocal Dependence of the Sexes. 370 
Reciprocal Duties of Husband and 

Wife 374 

Ruga, Divorced his Wife 427 

Relation of the Sun and Moon 480 

Reynolds, Mary, a Case of Double 

Consciousness 556 

S. 

Samial Winds 284 

Satan, Lucifer and Devil 138 



654 



THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 



Sexual Condition of Plants 87 

Sexes, Reciprocal Dependence of. . .370 

Seminal Fluid, its Source 401 

" " " Influence on 

Woman 403 

Self-Esteem, its Pivotal Position. . . .337 

Sin Blinds the Understanding 60 

" and its Effects 133 

" " '* upon the Human 

Constitution 159 

" a Deranging Principle 285 

" an Insulator between Man and 

God 84 

Sir H. Davy quoted 75 

Solomon's Temple Typical of Man. . 46 
Solomon's Wives and Concubines.. .383 

Solon 102 

Smith, Dr. Adam, on the Moral Sen- 
timents = 196 

Spiritual Mediums, their Corruptness 130 

Spirit and Matter 69, 580 

" " " their Inseparability 69 

" " " their Co -opposite 

Eelation 88 

Spermatic Fluid, its Secretion 80 

Stewart, quoted 20 

Sun, not the Source of both Light 

and Heat ..267 

" Ignorance in Relation to its 

Physical Constitution 280 

" its Dark Spots 281 

" " Atmosphere 283 

" and Earth, their Relation to each 

other , 94 

Stowell, Lord, quoted 462 

Spiritualism,its Nature and Influence 573 
" Among the Greeks and 

Romans « 600 

in India 613 

" " Germany 616 

Swedenborg quoted 594 

Spirits Conquored by the Lord 603 

Spiritualists' Theories Stated 635 

Summary * 645 

T. 

The Conjugal Principle 61 

The Christian Religion, its Influence 163 
The Correlation of Faith and Obe- 
dience 50 

The Danger of Continuing Insen- 
sible to Spiritual Influences 591 

The Divine Humanity, the Necessity 

of 149 

The Effects of a Superficial Know- 
ledge of Science * 21 



The Evolution of Knowledge 14 

The Extreme Divisibility of Matter. 71 

The Edict of Milan 109 

The Holy Spirit 38 

" " Word 48 

" " " its Sanctity from its 

Spiritual Sense 52 

The Interior and Exterior Will 188 

Two Kinds of Electricity 70 

The Laws of Connection 100 

The May Flower. 120 

The Moral Law 192 

The Need of a Christian Philosophy 18 

Tvndall, Prof 270 

The Personality of God 76 

The Relation of Spirit and Matter. . . 93 

" Sun and Earth 94 

The Righteous, their Saving Influ- 
ence . , 145 

The Ten Commandments 217 

U. 

Union of Church and State 104 

Universal Belief in the Existence of 

a God 30 

Unfitness of Municipal Laws 113 

Uzzah, Cause of his Death 144 

V. 

Veneration, Central Organ 337 

Vividness of Thought During Sleep 546 
Virtue Stronger in Woman than in 

Man 182 

Votes, the Buying and Selling of. . .232 

W. 

What Constitutes a Medium 592 

Winds Samial , 284 

Wifely Condition, how Created 437 

Will and Understanding 528 

Wife Conjoined to the Husband 

through the Virile Principle 379 

Will, the Central Principle of the 

Individual 484 

Woman a Representative of the 

Emotional Principle 97 

Woman's Rights 304 

Writing and Printing provided by 

by the Lord 49 

X. 

Xavier, his Miracles 105 

Z. 

Zend-Avesta. 612 



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